


Little Red

by dryless (orphan_account)



Series: J's Reylo Fairy Tales [1]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Blood, Blood Drinking, Courting Rituals, Eventual Smut, F/M, Knotting, Mating, Murder Mystery, Mystery, Smut, Vampires, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-17
Updated: 2018-11-15
Packaged: 2019-08-03 12:21:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 22,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16326152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/dryless
Summary: For as long as she’s known, something inside her has always been there.Mostly it’s been asleep.But now it’s awake.And she’safraid.From circumstances she can’t control, Rey gets a new job, a new home, and a new neighbor—the Big Bad Wolf.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SageMcMae](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SageMcMae/gifts).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sage, you wanted Little Red Riding Hood/Big Bad Wolf, and left it pretty open, except a few details. This definitely took me places I probably wouldn't have gone without this prompt, and I don't know if I should thank you for it or what ;)
> 
> But here you go, a Little Red Riding Hood with a twist, ABO and supernatural elements!
> 
> I hope you like it! <3
> 
>  
> 
> [Prompt inspiration](https://wewantreylo.tumblr.com/post/177796436312/sparklepoodles-red-riding-hood-reylo-au)
> 
>  
> 
> [Listen to the Little Red Playlist (Spotify)](https://open.spotify.com/user/qdy0ha5amhio85g49xujzfbxo/playlist/6u1UUiO37NHw8MDWythIhg?si=VXDnJjpHQLih322U3idXkQ)

The job offer comes seemingly out of nowhere.

As a lab tech it isn’t exactly as if she has problems finding work. No, quite the opposite. There’s plenty of work in forensics, health, and manufacturing. But for some reason, after reading the email that just dropped into her inbox, she finds herself unable to decline it.

It’s uncanny.

She should say no. There are very few reasons to say yes.

It’s an entry-level position with no possibility of career advancements, mainly because the job is out in nowhere. A small forensics lab, in a small town, a police precinct that covers the surrounding mostly woodsy area, where the worst offenders probably urinated publicly after a night out on the pub.

 _Chandrila_.

She’s never heard of it. Even sounds a bit made up. But Google finds it without a problem, and Rey finds it harder and harder not to call the number listed as the contact in the mail and say _‘yes, I’ll accept this job offer even if it’s creepy as hell’_.

Her stomach growls and she prolongs the inevitable by placating it with a hot meal.

She doesn’t have to wait long before the other end picks up.

“Holdo.” The sound of the woman’s voice reminds Rey of a warm summer breeze. At least it settles the unease in her stomach.

She means to say, ‘Hi, I’m Rey, I got an email from you,’ but instead she blurts, “I’m calling about the lab tech position.” She covers her mouth, gasping. The unease grows, a patrolling monster inside of her, waiting to break through.

“Ah, Miss Roth,” Holdo says soothingly, as if she knew, as if she knows exactly what’s going on. “I was waiting for your call.”

“I-” Rey stops. Holdo’s words are creepy, but why isn’t she scared?

“When can you start?”

Rey blinks.

“Uh- Right away?” She’s out of a job anyway.

“That sounds excellent,” Holdo says, pausing for a moment before adding, “But you live so far away. What do you say about starting on Monday?”

“Uh huh,” Rey hums agreeing, and Holdo ends the call before she can say anything else.

 

 

For as long as she’s known, something inside her has always been there.

Mostly it’s been asleep.

But now it’s awake.

And she’s _afraid._

 

 

She says the monster lives in her stomach, but that’s a lie. She knows it’s in her mind. And there’s no escape.

 

 

She’s tried everything. Diets, exercise, meditation, hot stone massage, even _therapy_ —even though the very word makes her bones ache with repressed frustration.

Talking about it only makes it worse. _It_ doesn’t want to talk.

 _“Rey, why are you talking about your anxiety as an entity?”_ the therapist would say, and that’s when Rey knew she was one step away from the loony bin, and she didn’t go to another session.

But from her experiments she adopts a few routines to make _it_ more manageable.

When she wakes, she eats, even if she isn’t hungry. Apparently, _it_ is always hungry after sleep.

She exercises, takes long runs through the park to tire _it_ out.

She stops eating junk food and spends too large a portion of her meager income on red meat and organic produce. The butcher teases her when she comes in, offers to open up a tab, since she can’t buy ahead, because _it_ hates when she doesn’t give _it_ fresh meat.

She stops using perfumes, she gets rid of clothes _it_ doesn’t approve of. She doesn’t go on dates because that’s… that’s a very _very_ _bad_ idea.

She does all these things, just to stay in _control_.

 

 

Because without control, things happen.

 

Her car is filled with the majority of her wardrobe, and the few mementos she doesn’t wish to part with. She’s driven for several days, stopping only for a light sleep here and there when the fatigue became too much (and for a run here and there when the restlessness grew too strong).

She enters Chandrila on the morning of the fourth day.

The town looks just as picturesque as it did online. Nestled on a hill, with forests surrounding it as far as the eyes can see—a spellbinding frame in yellow, rust and morning mists.

 _It_ wakes in her chest, aching for a run through the woods.

“Not yet. We’re almost there,” Rey mutters, and for now, _it_ relents.

Red, freshly fallen leaves breeze past as she drives down the main road, going straight through the town center. She passes large, official-looking buildings built in a wide variety of Victorian architecture. The town time has forgotten. Or where the town architect couldn’t make up their mind.

Rey throws a glance at the clock, almost half past seven. The town is still mostly asleep, it being Saturday morning and all, but there are a few souls strolling down the sidewalks.

One by one they stop and stare at her car when she passes. Each of them raises their hand and _waves_.

The hairs at the back of her neck stand up straight. Neither she nor _it_ like that. Her stomach grumbles, a low rumbling sound.

Rey frowns and continues the drive to her new home. On her way out of town she sees large beautiful mansions, the kind she’s previously only seen in films. The street ends abruptly, and there’s only forest again.

The road meanders back and forth, changing from tarmac to dirt and narrowing the further she drives. The still mostly leafy canopy almost closes above them before she finally reaches the end of the road.

 

 

> _There’s a house available for rent if you’d like. It’s mostly furnished unless you want to bring your own furniture. The key is underneath the loose porch step._
> 
>  
> 
> _Best regards_
> 
> _Amilyn Holdo_

 

 

Rey exits the car to stare at it properly. The house she’s renting is a log cabin, the size of a medium-sized family home. Much more than she needs, especially since she’s lived in a one-bedroom apartment for the last few years. It looks newly built, or at least recently renovated, going by the large modern windows.

There’s smoke coming from the chimney.

Tentatively, she approaches the porch. The keys are, just as promised, underneath the loose step.

Entering, there’s a small moment when she feels a slight bit of tension, but she just stops in the door and blinks a few times, and her shoulders ease up.

She has to be alone. The door was locked, so whoever lit the fire must be gone. She can only smell the wood of the cabin, and slightly of wood smoke.

After the small dark hallway she’s met by an open plan lounge, the closed fireplace at the center of the room casting shadows over the walls. At the back, floor to roof windows makes up the entire wall, and Rey gets a glimpse of water beyond the autumn trees. A lake. And what looks like a jetty.

Rey finds the kitchen, a sticky note upon it saying, _“Fridge stocked_ ,” and a date—it’s been stocked today. Probably by the same person who lit the fire.

She takes to the upstairs. Three bedrooms, two baths. One of the bedrooms is furnished as an office, the other as main bedroom and the third one as a guest room.

It’s a far way from the single bedroom apartment of Jakku she previously left behind.

She doesn’t _hate_ it.

She thinks.

Rey goes back down. She stands on the back porch, hugging herself from the chill. She needs more clothes if this is what the weather’s like around here.

The wind rustles the leaves and a few unlucky ones fall to the ground.

 _It_ is mostly quiet. Content.

“Of course you like this,” she murmurs. Relieved she doesn’t have to break out her running shoes, she decides to make breakfast.

 

 

The anxious rolling of her shoulders starts after she’s almost done unpacking. Her clothes are already in the way too large walk-in closet, and she’s just about finished with putting all her toiletries in place.

She pulls on her running gear and her well-worn shoes, and debating the temperature—she isn’t used to temperate climates, not yet—she pulls on the red runner’s jacket she never got to use back in Jakku.

 _It_ doesn’t like the jacket, never has. But Rey doesn’t want to freeze, so _it_ will just have to deal with it.

 

 

The first time she’d gone running after _it_ had awakened was the first time she’d found peace again. Or something that closely resembled peace, because she still felt _it_.

She’d love to be rid of _it,_ but after nearly five years of living with this—thing—there was no way she’d ever be free.

So she’d learned how to live with it, even if it meant daily runs. Sometimes twice a day. And of course, the very carnivorous diet.

 

 

She still doesn’t understand how, just _how,_ she ended up here. It’s as if she’s caught in that weird sensation when you’re perfectly aware of dreaming, waiting to wake up and realize it never happened. That she never got that mail. Never felt that excruciating compulsion to go here.

But she knows it isn’t. She’s here, she knows her place in the world, and it’s right here, in the autumn woods, right by a lake, petrichor hanging heavily in the moist air and suffusing her senses.

At least the area is beautiful. A lot colder than she’s used to, she thinks as she wipes her nose. _It_ is pleased Rey’s stretching her legs, even more so when she runs faster. The hollow forest ground echoes with the impact of her feet, the wind whines past her ears.

At tune with herself, with the world, Rey lets the trail take her wherever it goes. She could run for hours, bask in this feeling of _freedom_.

But eventually even she needs to stop and go back home.

 

She follows the trail back home at a light jog. She ran much farther than she realized and it takes forever before she sees the log cabin again. Relieved, she smiles and slows down to a walk.

She doesn’t realize something’s wrong until _it_ makes itself known again with a tensing of her neck and a rumble-like rolling in her stomach.

She stops and looks at the cabin again. Smoke’s coming out of the chimney. She sincerely hopes that whoever lit her fireplace didn’t come back while she was gone.

She tries to take one step closer, only to find her legs unwilling to obey.

“What the-”

The door creaks open. Rey looks up.

Rey feels everything inside her slow down, her pulse and her breath becomes almost _nothing_ , as she experiences something that must be what prey senses when they realize they’re caught in the sights of a predator.

He’s tall. Broad. Long, raven curls and a goatee frame his face. Beauty marks dot his face, and she notices his soft plump lips underneath the large nose. He’s… big. _Everywhere._

And _it_ tells her, _‘He’s dangerous.’_

Rey takes a precarious step back-

He shifts and leans against the porch railing.

She’s frozen on the spot.

“Run along, _Little Red_ ,” he murmurs, and his voice is deep, soothing, and she wants to hear him say anything, everyth-

 _No!_ _It_ growls.

Rey doesn’t need more persuasion.

She turns on the spot and runs back home.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the kudos and comments, subscriptions and everything! Thank you Sage, for creating not one but two moodboards for this fic, they’re absolutely stunning! I couldn't have imagined you would like it so much, I'm so so pleased! :D  
>  
> 
>    
> 
> 
>  
> 
> [Prompt inspiration](https://wewantreylo.tumblr.com/post/177796436312/sparklepoodles-red-riding-hood-reylo-au)  
> [Listen to the Little Red Playlist (Spotify)](https://open.spotify.com/user/qdy0ha5amhio85g49xujzfbxo/playlist/6u1UUiO37NHw8MDWythIhg?si=VXDnJjpHQLih322U3idXkQ) (Oh, and I added a lot of instrumental songs, mostly songs from The Last of Us soundtrack, because it captures the weird, lonely and haunted essence I envision for this fic.)
> 
> In this chapter I push too much plot and too many characters into my writing, because I’m having too much fun with this prompt.

It’s not until she’s home, safely ensconced inside her _own_ cabin that she looks out across the lake and sees an identical house on the other side, smoke puffing merrily from its chimney. There’s movement—a large shadow passes behind the window.

Rey paces reluctantly for ten minutes before she finally rips herself away from the window to fry that juicy ribeye she saw earlier in the fridge.

 

Her dreams that night contain snapping jaws on her heels as she runs, trying to get to safety, her cabin right there in front of her, but never getting any closer.

Rey wakes with a gasp and sits staring at her neighbor’s house for the entire Sunday morning before she and _it_ has had enough and goes for another run, resolutely going the opposite way from the day before.

 

 

Contrary to the rest of the mostly Victorian buildings in town, the police station is a slab of concrete haphazardly dropped on a narrow plot. Probably from sometime in the sixties, about as high as it is wide, and about as interesting as the pavement on which she stands.

She’s stood there a while now. Even if the pull to enter the building is strong.

She still fights it.

“Are you just going to stand there?”

Rey turns to the short wrinkled woman demanding her attention. She seems as old as the earth, the eyes behind the glasses shining with wisdom. “Prolonging the inevitable?”

Rey blinks. “What if I am?” she admits in a rush.

The woman huffs out a breath as she takes of her glasses to wipe some invisible stain off them. Preoccupied with regarding the strange woman, the sudden lurch of a push takes her with surprise. She yelps, and as if the earth was moving beneath her, Rey’s feet start to move of their own volition.

“That’s the spirit!” the old woman hums, and walks alongside her.

Tossing a glance over her shoulder, Rey swears she can see cracks disappear in the concrete where she just stood.

“Maz,” the woman says, and Rey turns back to her.

“Rey.”

“I know, girl, I know.”

_What is it with this town and these people?_

Rey has no answer, and she doesn’t dare to ask.

 

 

A uniform sleeps in a chair behind the glass partition.

Maz stops to snort before she goes up and bangs on the window.

The man rouses with a jolt, looking around wildly as he wipes the drool off his chin—a movement that slows once he sees Rey staring at him.

“Well, _hello_ ,” he leers, masking his drool-wipe into something he probably intends to come off as suave.

“Shut it, Dameron,” Maz snaps.

“Hello, Maz. Back again?” Dameron turns the charm to Maz, but winks at Rey.

“Yes, yes,” Maz continues impatiently. “I need to talk to Amilyn.”

“Alright, come on in,” he says, smiling, and a buzz followed by a click lets them know the way into the inner bowels of the police station is now open.

Rey hovers, uncertain.

“Rey. You might as well come in and let Poe here get you situated.”

Poe grins impishly, holds out his hand and Rey has to practice her breathing exercises. The shiver traveling all the way up her arm is not a good sign, there’s just something extremely _off_ about this man.

“Poe, Poe Dameron,” he repeats eagerly, and she’s just about to say she already knows, but he doesn’t wait on her response, “Don’t worry. I don’t bite.”

Rey huffs out a breath, still not trusting him because there’s something incredibly alarming about his devilish smile.

“Can’t promise about the others, though,” he mumbles when he turns away. Rey’s sharp ears immediately pick up on it.

“I’m sorry?”

Poe turns around and winks at her. “Come on. Let’s get you to the lab.”

 

 

Poe is mostly bluster. She’s uncertain if he’s trying to get a rise out of her as he jokes and flirts all the way down to the basement he promises is the floor of the lab, but he’s easily ignored.

 _It_ agrees—he’s like a buzzing fly that sometimes gets too close to your ears, but in the end, he’s completely harmless.

“Here you go!” Poe motions with his arm in a wide flourish, even though it’s unneccesary—she can read the text on the frosted glass door.

“Thanks,” she just replies and enters.

As soon as her gaze falls on the tall, statuesque woman, with platinum blonde hair standing in the middle of the lab, Rey stops in the opening, spine ramrod straight.

The woman pauses, and looks at Rey appraisingly, seeming to search for any sort of cracks in her armor.

After what seems like an eternity, a perfectly shaped brow quirks up, and the woman nods. “Well, thank _Tabatha_. I thought I’d be stuck down here forever,” she drawls in crisp scholar English.

Her gloves come off, and dropping them into the wastebasket she makes her way forward to Rey, greeting her properly. “Phasma,” she says, and then her gaze catches on the completely quiet Poe standing behind her. “Poe.”

“Phasma,” he croaks. “I thought this was your day off.”

He… _cowers_ behind her, Rey realizes as she turns her head.

“Holdo asked me to come in, and now I understand why,” Phasma says cryptically, and Rey feels like she’s missing an important piece of the puzzle.

 _Better make that a hundred pieces_ , she thinks sardonically.

“Get back to your station, imp,” says the blonde, and Poe scampers away with his tail between his legs. “There, alone at last. Now, let me show you how this place works.”

Thirty minutes later Rey’s head is filled with so much information about the lab and the procedures of the station that she feels the start of that familiar coiling in her shoulders.

It only takes a glance to see that the lab is huge, much larger than a lab in such a small precinct should be.

There’s also the gear. There’s lab equipment she’s never used before, never in Jakku, only ever seen them in equipment magazines, and the occasional expo her old boss forced her to go to. Phasma shows her the manual cabinet, telling her that everything’s in there, before proceeding to show her the backlog.

Rey’s eyes widen at the seemingly neverending list. The shelves in the storage room are almost buckling from the weight of all the items waiting for processing.

“Let’s just say I’m much more efficient with the sort of work that involves chasing down perps and punching them in the gut. Or the face,” Phasma offers when Rey looks at her questioningly.

And with that she leaves Rey with a mountain of work to catch up to, and more questions added to her list of ‘these-I-do-not-dare-ask.’

Why would they have one of the police officers working in the lab and what happened to the previous lab technician?

 

 

At least most of the work is familiar, and whatever’s new to her shouldn’t be hard to learn.

She runs through several tests, the ones she knows by heart, scratching a good amount of the work off the list. She’s stumped when it comes to some of the requests since she’s only worked with a few of these machines before.

It’s something she’ll have to look into later. And she doesn’t even want to think about the number of liquid samples sitting in the large fridge that needs urgent taking care of. They’ve waited for days, so she decides they can wait a little while longer until after lunch.

Working like this, falling into a well-known routine, works wonders for her anxiety, as _it_ doesn’t peek out until it’s nearing lunch.

It’s when she sits and eats the lunch she’d brought from home and heated in the lab microwave—which nobody there needs to know about—she gets her first visitor.

A man, approximately her height and close to her age, enters the lab. He’s dressed in a soft looking, homemade knit sweater in a mossy green, and gray wool trousers. He sips from a mug—Rey scents the chocolate and her mouth waters. There’s a goodnatured smile on his lips which, unlike Dameron’s earlier, disarms her instantly.

 _It_ too seems to think he’s not a threat.

“You do know there’s a cafeteria upstairs,” Finn says after introducing himself.

Rey purses her lips. “Well, I do _now_ ,” she says, knowing she won’t go there. Unless it turns out to be quiet. Maybe. She’ll see. “What brings you down here?”

“Well, there was a completed request in my inbox a little while ago,” he explains.

Rey feels stupidity bleed into her cheeks. Of course, he’s one of those plain-clothed officers. Rey finds the results he’s after, and shares her analysis of the tests, while he asks follow-up questions. Once she’s done, she looks up to see him staring at her questioningly.

“What?”

“These aren’t all the requested labwork.”

Rey bites her chapped bottom lip. “I know. I’m still trying to figure out what some of these machines actually do,” she admits. There’s no point in hiding it, they’ll find out sooner or later anyway.

Finn nods sympathetically and cracks up with a dazzling smile. “Pretty sure you’ll manage. You’ve only been here a few hours, and already you’ve done more than Phasma did in two weeks- _Don’t_ tell her I said that.”

“Well, she did say she was better at hunting down bad guys.”

The corners of Finn’s eyes crinkle. “Definitely one of her strengths. Paperwork, not so much.”

“Well, I’m pretty sure you didn’t become cops because of your stellar writing skills,” she teases—and as Finn huffs and chuckles, she realizes she hasn’t teased someone for several years.

“The food is excellent in the cafeteria,” Finn says when he’s about to leave with his report. “I think you’ll like it. They’ve got a good meat menu.”

Rey’s smile drops. “Huh? How- Why would you say that?”

Finn frowns but remains mostly unperturbed by her confusion. “Well, wouldn’t you enjoy that?”

And there comes that jovial smile once again, and Rey is on her own again, with even more questions.

 

 

For the most part Rey’s left alone for the rest of the day. A few more who come down to get the results—none of them as kind as Finn, however cryptic he’d been when he left—and by midafternoon she even receives a cordial email in her inbox from Holdo, apologizing for her not being there to meet Rey when she started.

Rey doesn’t mind.

What she does mind is the fact that there’s still an hour left on the clock and she’s barely made a dent in the storage room, despite her valiant efforts. Outside, night has started to fall, and the basement windows are too small to allow for much natural lighting, and as she’s forced to switch on the lights Rey wonders why every lab has to use the blue lighting that only hurts her eyes.

 _It_ starts to get antsy from the inactivity, and Rey has to stop her knee from jumping several times.

“Shhh. We’re going to be out of here soon,” she murmurs to _it_. “We can take a run when we get home.”

“Do you talk to yourself a lot?” a deep voice comments behind her.

Rey gasps and jumps off her stool, heartbeat stuck in her throat. And that’s not the only thing she senses. _It_ lurches and grows inside of her, threatening to take over. Her skin feels as if it doesn’t fit.

 _No_.

Rey shivers and wills _it_ down. She can’t lose control like this.

_Coming here was a mistake._

A chuckle breaks through her concentration. Her hands are clasping the edge of the table, her nails trying to embed the surface like claws. Rey rips free and swiftly turns around to meet the intruder.

And there he stands, the handsome dark-haired man she probably should call her neighbor.

“Hello, _Little Red_ ,” he says, lips spreading into a wolfish grin.

Rey inhales sharply. _It_ bristles.

There’s nowhere to run this time.

And _he_ knows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rational me: Couldn’t you have summarized all this?
> 
> Me: Nope.
> 
> Rational me: Yes you could’ve. No one wants to read about Poe and Finn and Phasma and all that labwork. They want the reylo, and you know it. 
> 
> Me: It’s called _buildup_ and I will force everyone to read every whimsical idea I have about this stupid town and its stupid inhabitants. **AND** it’s extremely important.
> 
> Rational me: You sure about that?
> 
> Me: Uhm… Yes?
> 
> Rational me: *waits*
> 
> Me: I have no idea! *falls down in a heap and sobs*
> 
> Rational me: There, there. At least you reined it in.
> 
> Me: _Exactly_. This could easily have been 5k, just so you know. **You’re welcome**
> 
> Disclaimerish thingy: So yeah, I know nothing about lab work, except the labs I remember from school and I’m pretty sure those don’t count. And I probably know even less about how things go about in a police station despite all the CSI shows I’ve watched, but this is all made up anyway! I know you’re here because of the Reylo and the ABO so indulge me for a moment, okay? ;)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If you’re getting this update in the mail, don’t forget to go back and read chapter 2. A reader told me that the AO3 update didn’t come in yesterday, which totally sucks! But on the other hand, now you’ve got two updates to read :D
> 
> In this chapter... more buildup for yous!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the comments and questions. I’m feeling a little bad I’m not responding to them, but I’m focusing on getting these chapters out, hopefully before October ends (it’s looking more and more unlikely lol, but I’m giving it my best shot)
> 
> I got a reader question: “Is Maz a witch! Is Poe a literal imp?”  
> \-->Yes, Poe is an imp. But Maz is not a witch. Go ahead and let me hear your guesses. Everyone in Chandrila is a supernatural being. Good luck figuring it all out!:D
> 
>  
> 
> [Prompt inspiration](https://wewantreylo.tumblr.com/post/177796436312/sparklepoodles-red-riding-hood-reylo-au)
> 
>  
> 
> [Listen to the Little Red Playlist (Spotify)](https://open.spotify.com/user/qdy0ha5amhio85g49xujzfbxo/playlist/6u1UUiO37NHw8MDWythIhg?si=VXDnJjpHQLih322U3idXkQ)
> 
>  
> 
> Sage, your comments give me life! <3

_ Why does he have to be such a fine specimen of a man? _

There’s just something about him that gets to her. If it’s the wideness of his shoulders, the way the plaid shirts stretches over his chest, and how the shoulder holsters just look so…

There’s also the way he towers over her—which he shouldn’t be, he’s not  _ that _ tall—but here he is, standing awfully close to her, his presence suffusing her, marking her. Not that close,  _ please _ —Rey has to stop herself from stepping back.

And, maybe, perhaps, probably, most likely,  _ inevitably,  _ it’s the way his face  _ pulls _ her in from the hooded intensity of his eyes as he patiently waits her— _ his prey _ —out. It’s in the starkness of contrasts of strong and soft—the delicate jaw she’d love to trace her fingers over, the line of his patrician nose and his prominent brow. How his big round ears peek out from beneath his dark luscious locks—do they hear everything? Can he hear her breath hitch, can he hear her heart as it beats its rapid staccato?

For the entire time she’s scrutinized him—yes, that’s an  _ apt _ word choice, Rey—he’s stood stock still. Is he going to do something? Is she going to do something other than just stare at him, and  _ lust- _

He sets down the cardboard box she’d hardly noticed was always there in his hands. He sets it on the table where she stands, and he’s so close that she feels just about ready to jump out of her skin.

He’s so close she can see the cording of the muscles in his neck. The way his nostrils flare. The way his Adam’s apple bobs.

Rey inhales, and almost moans at how good he smells, like forest, wood smoke and burned sugar.

_ No _ , the thing inside her warns,  _ no sniffing the enemy _ .

Rey swallows. 

_ Right. _ She should listen to  _ it _ ,  _ it _ has kept her safe before and she steps back, and he immediately glances at her, and she once again feels that incredible vulnerability.

_No, we’re not prey,_ _it_ enforces. _We won’t behave like prey…_ _not in here_.

_ Yeah, well, good luck with that. _

“What can I help you with?” she gets out with a shaky voice.

A smirk on his lips—she’d love to wipe it off—he opens the cardboard box and pulls out a plastic bag with a big knife in it. “I need this tested for fingerprints and trace promptly,” he says.

Rey blinks. It’s a very big knife. And not of the kitchen knife variety. Not even a hunter knife, but a curved knife… a  _ scimitar,  _ her basic knowledge of swords and daggers supplies. Interest flares inside her, but it’ll just have to wait, like everything else.

_ Now I’ll just have to tell him no, _ she thinks. Crossing her arms over her chest she finds some mock courage deep inside herself.

“You can put the box in the storage, and I’ll get to it once I… get to it,” she manages to say, much more evenly.

Frowning, he puts down the knife again, and she nearly sighs with relief, thinking she’s going to be rid of him soon,  _ yes _ ,  _ it _ adds happily, and she plans to do a happy dance once he’s out the door, in giddy relie-

“Why don’t you just do it now?” he asks, crossing his arms across his wide muscular chest.

_ No! Bad Rey! _

Rey pulls her gaze away, and remembers he asked her something. “Uh, no.” 

He’ll just have to wait like everyone else.

“Not even if I say it’s a matter of life and death? The trail is still warm, I’m not about to lose track of him,” he says, taking a step closer.

Rey has to stop herself from stepping back.

“Why don’t you be a good little girl and get this tested for me,” he says, sliding the box over to her.

Rey puts her hand on the box, sensing the strength behind his push. She even tries pushing it back, but it’s not budging.

_ Show-off _ .

“That’s still a no. This is my lab, and you don’t get to dictate over what I do.”

A twitch in his eye breaks his otherwise calm composure.

_ Yes _ ,  _ it  _ celebrates. Not for long though, because he smirks at her, placing his hand on top of the box, and  _ leans _ in.

“Oh, but I know someone who can.”

They end up on the top floor which is a landscape of desks and uniforms and plain-clothes. She sees Finn sitting at a desk at the other end of the room. He waves at her merrily but frowns when his gaze falls on the man leading the way.

He stops only for a second by a frosted glass door, the word CAPTAIN across it, and  _ doesn’t even bother knocking. _

“Rude,” Rey mutters, and  _ it _ agrees, but the only reaction out of him is him flipping his hair in blatant disregard.

“Solo, you know how I feel about you barging in unannounced.”

“Good, you’re still here.”

“When do I ever leave?” she jokes, but there’s a strain to her voice.

Oh, that’s Amilyn Holdo, sitting behind a desk, in a gorgeous slinky dress and with purple hair and a headdress. She looks… like an angel. Rey feels completely underdressed with her plain black chinos and gray t-shirt.

Holdo pushes away from the desk. When she greets Rey, she brings with her the smell of lilacs, sweet pea and honeysuckle, and Rey feels a sense of comfort she hasn’t felt in years.

“Please call me Amilyn,” she requests of Rey, and she just nods, feeling somewhat dazed.

“I see you’ve met my top detective, Ben Solo. I hope he hasn’t been too much of a jerk.”

Is this the part where she says yes?

On her pause, Amilyn turns to Solo. “What did you do this time?”

“I didn’t do  _ anything _ ,” he protests, but she just rolls her eyes and goes back to sit down.

With a gesture, she invites the two of them to join her, but Rey isn’t quite willing to put him at her back, and whatever reason he has for staying standing is unimportant anyways.

“Come clean, Solo,” she orders.

“As I said, I did nothing!  _ She’s _ the one who doesn’t want to do my case-

“No, that’s not what I said,” Rey blurts out, pissed off to kingdom come already. “I said it’ll have to wait until I’m done with the rest of my work.”

“Which will take days if not weeks,” he says, turning to her and gesticulating at her wildly, infringing on her personal space.

Rey tenses her eyes at him, and  _ it _ grumbles a threat from within her stomach. 

_ Back. Off. _

“Don’t you know it’s impolite to growl,” he says, and both Rey and  _ it _ still with shock.

_ How did he- _

Rey had always thought nobody but she could hear the growling, much like a hungry stomach is usually only heard by the one in possession of said stomach.

“Stop squabbling,” Holdo berates, demanding their attention. She leans forward with her elbows on her desk, steepling her fingers. “Alright. I’m listening. Plead your cases.”

While Rey still tries to wrap her head around what’s happening, Detective Solo launches into a tirade, “I have fresh evidence from the latest scene of ritual killings. We estimated the kill took place just a few hours ago. We ran to the station to get this tested, and if  _ she _ won’t do it, I’ll do it myself-”

“You’re not qualified to be in the lab!” she objects instinctively, even if her mind is caught up on the news of ritual killings in such a small town…

_ What’s wrong with this place? _

“Oh,  _ Red _ , you have no idea what I’m capable of,” he says, a slow menacing drawl of words that dance across her skin, causing goosebumps.

_ No _ ,  _ it  _ growls.

“Stop  _ that _ .”

_ “I can’t help it _ -”

“Is that all, Detective?” says Amilyn, interrupting Rey’s annoyed defense.

“You know they’re targeting people of my community already. We need to catch this monster before it’s too late,” Solo argues, and Rey finds she can’t actually disagree with that, but she’s damned if she gives him the win.

“I’ve made a serious dent in the storage room, but I have a ton of other work to get through. The other cases deserve attention too, what if the next case I work on can be solved?”

Solo huffs. “My trail is hot, I can’t let it go cold.”

Amilyn sits back, considering both of them. A few minutes pass, something that feels like hours to Rey. She knows what she’s going to say. She should just give in, but she doesn’t want to give the man next to her the pleasure of giving in, and  _ it _ agrees proudly,  _ yes, don’t give  _ in _. _

“Okay, while I know the backlog needs to be cleared out, I’m going to side with Solo this time. This case takes priority. Your overtime will be heavily compensated.”

Rey’s shoulders sag with disappointment, and it’s hard not to notice how Solo next to her lengthens with his win.

“But since you offered to do it, why don’t you deal with the easier tasks Rey will have to put back?” Amilyn suggests, but it’s not a suggestion at all, and now Rey’s the one who gets to feel smug-

Up until she realizes she’ll have to share her space with the bastard, and she  _ really _ doesn’t want that-

“No! That’s not neces-”

Amilyn tilts her head at her, but not questioningly, but rather in that menacing way,  _ are you sure you want to finish that sentence? _

Beside her, Solo shakes with withheld laughter.

“Fine. On the condition he stays in the storage room.”

“Absolutely,” Amilyn agrees, not even stopping to think about it. 

Rey hums happily.  _ She finally got to wipe that smug expression off his face. _

 

“Thank you, Solo. Now go prepare whatever needs preparing, while I have a chat with Ms. Roth,” Amilyn dismisses.

Rey turns to keep her front forward when Solo exits the office with that smirk on his face, before she seats herself in front of Amilyn, barely able to contain her sigh of relief.

“He’s not so bad once you get used to his… temper tantrums.”

“He has temper tantrums?”

“I thought-” She pauses. “Hmm. You’ll see. Don’t be alarmed when it happens.”

Rey clears her throat. She doesn’t like the idea of Solo behaving like a toddler in her lab.

“I hope everyone else has been treating you right.”

“Yes. Thank you.” They have. Finn especially. And Poe wasn’t too bad.

“We’re so glad to have you here, Rey.”

Rey stalls. For some reason there’s more to her words than what she’s just saying. The temperature in the room goes up, as if someone opened the window to a warm summer’s breeze.

“I’m. Happy. To be here?” Is she truly? She doesn’t know.

“Not used to us yet? It took me time too, to adjust… and let go of the mask I had created to stay hidden.”

_ Mask? _

Rey tenses in her seat. Why does she recognize herself in Amilyn’s words? A knot forms in her throat and she painfully swallows it down.

“How did you know I needed a job?”

Amilyn shifts forward in her chair. “We heard about the accident.”

_ Oh, no, please no. _ Rey closes her eyes, trying to keep away the tears threatening to spill. Behind her eyes flashes of red and black intermingle with images of her coworkers- her old coworkers running away, screaming with terror.  _ Stop. Please, stop. Don't hurt me. _

Rey folds in on herself, trying to keep the memories at bay. 

A warm hand on her shoulder breaks her out of it. Amilyn smiles sadly, “There. You’ve got nothing to fear from us,” she assures, and Rey believes her, if only for a second. “We know how hard it can be to be out there. Of course, it takes some getting used to, but rest assured, Rey. This is our home, and there’s no better place for us than here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhm, so this is starting to get away from me a bit… This chapter brutally murdered my original outline.
> 
> *eyes the chapter count* 7’s not gonna be enough.
> 
>   
> Edit: The subscription on this fic exchange seems to be broken. I've been in contact with AO3 about them not sending out subscription mails on my fic, but others are also affected, while normal fics get their update emails out. Hopefully it'll resolve soon. 
> 
> I might not update this every day, I was just lucky this was the weekend and all, but I plan to update every other day, so keep your eyes open for updates!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I’ve been in contact with AO3 about the subscription not working. Apparently, it’s intentional. You should subscribe anyway, because I find it hard to believe I’ll finish this before it’s off anon, but in case you want to stay updated through the rest of October you will need to refresh this story maybe every other day (that’s how often I plan to update, with maybe two chapters over the weekend).
> 
> Gosh, I love all the comments. Thank you so much!
> 
>  **Content warning** (and spoiler alert): in case hunting and blood is a squick for you, skip over the paragraph of Rey’s dream. It starts with “Rey dreams of running.”
> 
>  
> 
> [Prompt inspiration](https://wewantreylo.tumblr.com/post/177796436312/sparklepoodles-red-riding-hood-reylo-au)
> 
>  
> 
> [Listen to the Little Red Playlist (Spotify)](https://open.spotify.com/user/qdy0ha5amhio85g49xujzfbxo/playlist/6u1UUiO37NHw8MDWythIhg?si=VXDnJjpHQLih322U3idXkQ)

Rey hardly detects anything as she exits the office. She avoids the lift, not ready to face confinement, however brief, after Amilyn’s strange announcement.

“Hey,” Solo greets, his low voice causing her to flinch as she shuffles back inside the basement.

She’d already forgotten all about Solo.

“Oh, hey. Why are you still here?” she asks, her eyes bulging when he shrugs on a lab coat that is two sizes too small for him. Those sleeves won’t make it until the end of the shift.

“I’m helping you out, _Little Red_. You should be grateful.”

“Don’t call me that,” Rey snaps.

And all of a sudden he’s there, in her space, and Rey can’t decide if she wants to run away, or push him away—or if the urge to push at him is just a ruse to paw at him? She knows that underneath his loose plaid shirt hides thick corded muscle, alabaster marble and-

 _Stop, it_ growls out annoyed.

“You really need to learn to tone that down,” Solo muses as he tucks a stray hair behind her ear.

Rey’s breath hitches, and overwhelmed by the intensity of his smell and his crowding presence, the thing inside her goes blissfully quiet, if only for a moment.

She’s a shivering mess when he finally moves away.

“Don’t be afraid,” he says, smirking. “I feel it too.”

“Get away from me,” she snarls.

“I’m not anywhere near you, _Little Red_. I’ll be in the storage room, as requested.”

 _He’s dangerous_ , _it_ reminds her once he’s gone. With about as much confidence as a rabbit’s, _it_ continues, _We need to stay away from him._

“Is this truly necessary? You’re in here every ten minutes, and I have to go out there to do some of these tests,” Solo complains, and Rey finds it really hard to argue with him because it’s all true.

She concedes by leaving the door to the storage room open.

Through the evening she runs every test she can think of and throws in a few that are probably unnecessary. All to placate him-

No. It’s because the sooner she gets rid of him the better.

It’s past midnight when he’s given up on working on what he’s supposed to, pacing back and forth in the lab, just behind her workstation. Rey feels the tension roll off him like thunder rolls across the earth, and has to keep herself from barking at him to stay still.

He hovers over her shoulder as she reads the results off the screen. Nothing about them comes off as unusual, except-

“What’s that?” he asks, pointing at the screen at the same time as she does, brushing against her fingers.

His skin is blistering hot, his hand entirely too big on top of hers. He snaps his hand away with a hiss as if he feels the burn too.

“That’s an uncommon pollen compound,” Rey says after searching the database. She shows him the origin, a rare tree vine.  

Solo stands straight, going still until she can’t even see his chest move, but behind his eyes a myriad of thought processes take place. Then, he lurches away, throws open the door and bounds away. She can hear him take the stairs three steps at a time.

Rey feels oddly bereft with him gone.

She shakes her head free from her silly thoughts, cleans up the lab, and finally goes home.

 

Rey dreams of running.

The ground is soft and moist underneath her feet, dirt squishing in between her toes. The cool air chills her lungs as she pants out her breath, but her core is hot, and her four legs strain with exertion. She’s run for a while now, moving across acres to find her home.

An unsuspecting bunny hops onto her path, and instinctively she sets after it.

The blood is warm as she tears its neck open between her jaws. The small body cools quickly from its loss of life and her devouring of it.

A wolf’s howl resonates in the woods. Rey turns around-

 

-and falls out of her bed.

Nursing her back, she sits and gasps for air, sweat slicking her hair uncomfortably.

_Another one._

Rey swallows, letting the dark and the sounds of the forest outside soothe her breath, calm her heartbeat. She listens to the light rain pattering on the window, the branches of the nearby trees rasp against the walls of the house.

 _Wait a minute._ There’s something else.

Someone’s knocking on her door.

Rey stumbles downstairs, opens the door and-

 _It_ reacts instantly.

“You really need better manners,” Solo says and pushes the door open properly and slides inside her house before she can protest.

Doesn’t mean she won’t try. “Get out,” and _it_ growls with her.

 _Either he goes, or we run,_ _it_ tells her, and Rey can’t agree more. Annoyed, she crosses her arms across her chest.

He turns around.

His gaze dips.

And then it doesn’t.

“Get dressed,” he says, going into her kitchen.

“What are you doing?” she calls after him.

“Making you a snack to keep the beast at bay.” He stops in the doorway. “You’re coming with me. We’ve got a lead.”

“But I’m just a lab rat.”

“Oh, you know you’re far from that,” he tells her and disappears from view. “Get dressed! Holdo has already signed off on this, so don’t even try to argue.”

 

He drives like a madman.

She makes the mistake of closing her eyes, which only succeeds in nauseating her as she lurches from side to side in her seat.

The seared beef sandwich still sits on her lap. She does not intend to eat in front of him. That means she has to take her eyes off him, and that’s dangerous, even if a bit of a relief for her senses.

His profile is quite stunning.

Things would be simpler if he’d looked like the monster _it_ perceives him as.

“Can you slow down?”

Silence. So he’s a brooder.

 _Typical._  

“We’re not getting there if we crash.”

He glances at her from the corner of his eye. “Eat your sandwich, _Red_.”

Rey inhales slowly. “Stop telling me what to do.”

“Why do you fight it so much?” he asks.

“Fight _what_?”

“You know what.” He takes his eyes off the road for a moment. “You know it’s much easier if you give in.”

_Maybe for you it is._

Rey rolls her eyes, but opens the bag and pulls out the sandwich.

“This has nothing to do with you,” she says before biting into it.

“If you say so.”

The sandwich is delicious.

 

He drives them to the other end of town. Several buildings stand close in that crowded apartment complex manner. The look of them is, unlike the more luxurious parts of town, abandoned, lonely, dark. One of the houses has clearly seen its fair share of fire from the soot and burn marks around its windows.

Across the road, there’s a dilapidated playground, behind which stands a copse of trees. Most of the leaves have fallen, but the trunks are still green—overgrown with vines.

Solo leads her inside one of the buildings. The air’s stale, and the paint’s flaking on the walls. Thick cobwebs layered with dust, and dirt has collected all across the floor. The building is ripe from misuse.

“Why doesn’t anyone live here?” Rey asks.

Solo stops in front of the last door on the floor. “Because it’s cursed,” he explains, then opens, disappearing inside the apartment.

Rey rolls her eyes.

This stupid town is going to be the end of her.

Solo waits for her inside the entryway. “We suspect this is where the killer lived. He has moved on. I need you to help me figure out where.”

“I really don’t see what I’m supposed to do,” Rey complains. “You do know I used to work in a hospital lab, right?”

Solo considers her, long enough that she looks away, and starts to catalog what she can see in the room. A couch riddled with holes and unsavory stains. A coffee table with only two legs remaining, one end kept up with a stack of bricks. The place is remarkably clean for a hovel.

There’s nothing here that says it’s been lived in by a murderer.

“Yes. I know,” he finally replies.

 _Does that mean he knows about… what happened?_ Rey wonders, deciding to ignore him.

“Just do what you did in the lab,” he says, and now he’s so close that Rey jumps from the sound of his voice.

“What? I did whatever I could to get rid of you,” she admits, turning to look at him.

“You sure about that, _Little Red_?” He moves to the couch and picks up a ratty pillow. “Just use your senses,” he says, bringing it over to her.

“It’s a couch pillow. What am I supposed to do with it?”

“Smell it.”

“I’m not smelling the pillow.”

“ _Just do it_ ,” he says, and this time there’s an extra push to his voice.

Rey can’t believe she’s doing this.

She smells the pillow.

“What do you sense?”

“It smells like a couch,” she says. “Like old stuffed furniture. A little rank.”

“Dammit, _Red_ . Let the walls down. Let yourself go,” he murmurs, and something just _clicks_ . “Try again. And this time, actually _smell_ it.”

Rey glares at him, but takes the pillow from his hand and inhales once more, deeply.

“Not too much,” he says.

Rey rolls her eyes. “Stop talking.”

_Let yourself go._

There is something about the smell she hadn’t noticed earlier. Rey pulls the pillow away.

“I don’t know,” she says.

Solo takes the pillow back, and watches her turn around to scrutinize the room once more.

 _There’s nothing here_.

But the door over there looks promising.

Behind it hides a bedroom. Unlike everything else in the apartment, the bed at the center looks fresh. The bedding seems to be made out of silk. She finds that remarkably luxurious for someone hiding out in a place like this.

A glint teases her eyes. Rey crosses the room and pulls a strand from the pillow.

“I’m not so sure your killer is a man,” she says, holding the long and almost white hair up for Solo to see.

“Well, shit,” he says. “Bag it. Let’s bring it to the station.”

  


After he’s certain she can’t find anything else, he drives her back to the station.

He stops outside the concrete slab that is their workplace, unmoving and quiet in his seat next to hers, until-

_“Why do you keep your wolf caged?”_

She doesn’t know if she heard him right. ‘Uh, what?’ seemed fitting, but her brain’s still trying to convince her she heard wrong.

“My _wolf?”_

His mouth parts in wonder. “You can’t be serious. You _know_ about your wolf, right?”

Rey frowns. “Uh, no. Because there is no wolf.”

“I see.”

But neither of them look away from each other. Rey doesn’t know why, she doesn’t know if she can.

“Well, you’re wrong, Rey.”

Rey shakes her head, closing her eyes. Maybe she can shut him out if she does it hard enough?

“You’re a werewolf, Rey.”

 _No. No, I’m not,_ she denies.

_...I don’t know._

Rey opens her eyes.

He's still there. His next words resonate deeply within her.

“As am I.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, _hello_ there. Didn't see that coming? I think I've hinted at this a million times ;P
> 
>  
> 
> Ummm, preliminary findings say this will end up with 10 chapters... I think. (I HAVE NO IDEA, OKAY!)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Work has been a bitch, and I totally lost momentum for a few days. But I have the next week off, so I hope I can update more frequently over the next days :)
> 
> Thank you so much for the support you've shown this story!

Rey tests the hair and finds that her assumption was correct. The hair comes from a female, but the DNA results don’t show up in any of their databases.

When Solo finds out, his eyes turn dark and empty. After what feels like an eternity he turns and walks away with even measured steps, but the anger exudes out of him, polluting the air with an acrid smell which lingers in her nose.

She has no idea what to do, so she turns back to what she’s supposed to be doing—clearing out that storage room.

Rey’s peaceful snooze by the microscope is interrupted by a kind voice calling her name.

“Just five more minutes,” she mumbles, trying to bat away the hand gently shaking her shoulder.

“I brought coffee,” the voice says.

The sound of that has Rey sitting up and blinking the sleep suds away in an instant.

“Rough night?” Finn asks.

“No, not at all. I love getting woken up by a madman—one claiming to be a werewolf, mind you—then get pushed around all over town to do his dirty work.”

He looks at her over the rim of his hot chocolate mug, not even disturbed by her statement.

Rey groans. “Are you just gonna skip over the part where I said Solo’s deluding himself?”

Finn holds her gaze for the longest while. “I guess this is the part where I say, ‘No, he’s not?’”

She has no idea how to interpret that. “Wait… to which part are you referring?”

“The one which would make you more comfortable?” he replies, shrugging.

Her jaw drops a little. “You can’t be-”

A gentle but persistent alarm from one of the machines interrupts her. Rey shuts it off with a press of her finger, and when she turns back to Finn, it’s to find the lab empty.

“There’s no such thing as werewolves,” she mutters under her breath, to the thing living in her stomach.

 _It_ remains quiet.

 

There are no more interruptions for the rest of the day. Rey goes home, sleeps fitfully—she doesn’t want another dream about wolves and… that _other_ thing that happens in her dreams—and wakes the next day with _it_ crawling with unreleased tension.

It’s only been a couple of days, and she’s already falling behind on her fragile, but oh, so important routines.

Rey tries valiantly to regroup, eats her giant breakfast even if she has no appetite, and pushes herself to go for a run, even if there’s no energy in her limbs and it’s raining a bit too heavily for comfort.

 _It_ is only marginally pleased.

Rey has half an hour before she needs to go in for work. She decides to go in early when she’s typed ‘Chandrila + werewolves’ in the search bar on Google.

 

Poe lets her in with a laugh.

“Heard you got the absolute horror of working with Solo yesterday.”

“Hmm, yes, that’s a way to put it.”

“Hope he didn’t slobber all over you,” Poe says, leaning in a little bit too close.

Rey leans back, repulsed, a brow raised as Poe’s nostrils flare.

“Wait. Did you just sniff me?”

Still too close for comfort, and with an almost apologetic grin on his face, he opens his mouth to reply.

A roar from the other side of the security glass interrupts him.

“Oh, shit,” Poe yelps with his gaze turned out to the entrance, and then he jumps back from Rey.

Rey turns to see, only to find the reception area empty. “What-”

A warm presence, a furnace, moves in behind her, heating her along the back of her legs, her back, shoulders, and all the way up to the back of her head. It settles into her bones like a balm.

She doesn’t have to look to know who it is. She smells him just fine—wood, fire, and smoke.

“Watch it, _imp_ ,” comes out in a low growl.

Poe rolls a chair out in front of him, as if it’s a shield, and starts backing away to the door behind him. “No harm!” he says and disappears into the other room.

It’s Rey who moves away first—the loss of heat almost causes her to shiver, or maybe that’s something else since she’s having trouble meeting his gaze because it burns her just as much as his presence-

His eyes are dark, deep, fathomless, binding her to the spot.

Can he see the way her small hairs stand on their ends? Does he see how her heartbeat flutters as the blood flushes through the artery on her neck?

Can he see how she struggles to stay still before him?

“Good morning, Rey.”

Rey nods and flees down to her basement.

Door closed behind her, she inhales once, twice—her lab smells like the ocean.

She’s not alone.

“Hi!” says a cheery voice, and a head pokes up from behind the mass spectrometer.

“I’m Rose!” she says, greeting her with large eyes, gravity-defying hair and an adorable set of teeth. She’s tiny, barely making it past Rey’s shoulder. “I’m the resident w-”

“Doctor Tico!” a familiar voice—it’s _him_ —barks out.

Rey’s world spins off its axis. Had he been behind her all the time? And how does he do that? Enter her lab without a sound?

And then it rights itself as he enters her field of vision. Because w _hat does he want now?_

“Good, you’ve met.”

“Almost!” Rose chastises, and it’s with horror Rey watches her slap at his forearm.

Amazingly, he doesn’t do anything except glare a bit harder at the woman who’s almost half his size.

“I’m Doctor Tico, but please call me Rose. Sometimes I do mortician stuff here when I’m not busy setting bones and breaking curses.”

“Not you too,” Rey mutters under her breath. 

Frowning, Rose turns to Solo. “You weren’t kidding.”

Rey doesn’t know how to think about the implication that he’s talked about _her_ with someone else.

“What’s going on?” she asks, crossing her arms.

“Rose here is going to help you out with your regular duties.”

“I might mostly carve dead people, but I know how to run a bit of blood work. This shouldn’t be too hard,” Rose says, but she doesn’t look entirely certain as she looks around the lab.

Rey catches up on what Solo just said. “Wait, my _regular_ duties?” she demands.

But before anyone can answer, the door to the lab opens, and an officer steps in with a box in their hands. “Where do you want this?” they ask, turning to Solo.

“Somewhere in here,” he grunts, shrugging.

It’s with a sense of dread, and an almost untamable impulse to scream, Rey watches the un-named cop, then another, and then a third, walk into her lab with boxes in their arms. They set down the boxes on whatever surface they find, then leave, only to have more fill up behind them, like lemmings.

“What’s this?” Rey demands, backing up as the available space diminishes.

“This is all the evidence we’ve gathered from the ritual killings,” Solo says, looking over the process with royal bearing. “And from the hideout we found yesterday.”

“I thought there was nothing there,” she comments.

There hadn’t been. There is no sense in all this, she thinks, ready to let loose a scream because this…

This is just too much.

“Nothing you could discern with your _human_ senses,” he murmurs, glancing over his shoulder with-

Is that _disdain_ in his eyes?

 _“Excuse_ me?” Rey spits out, and _it_ rears its ugly head, flashing its teeth and snarls.

Solo’s gaze remains unimpressed. “You heard me, _Red_. You have no idea what you’re doing. You have no training.”

Rey feels heat all along her front, she’s stepped into his hemisphere, issuing a warning. “Who do you think you are, coming into my lab, telling _me_ how to do _my_ job?”

“It’s not so much your job,” he says, breath hot on her face. She struggles to stay still, not back down, not yet, _not yet_ -

“You need a teacher.”

 

Every molecule in her body screams at her to reject him. Her right hand twitches, itching to slap that smirk off his face.

It would be so satisfying.

She’d enjoy the smack of his flesh against the palm of her hand. Her hand would hurt, but it would be worth it. His cheek would become an angry red. Would he snap his face away, or stand still as a rock—just take it?

 

But she doesn’t slap him.

Instead, _it_ releases a threatening rumble.

“Get the hell out of my lab.”

 

For some indescribable reason, he actually leaves, with the promise he’d be back. 

 

“That was… intense,” Rose pipes up.

Rey remembers to breathe, snapping out of it and coming back to herself. And as she does, she takes note of two things.

One, she didn’t actually reject him.

And two, she’s-

“Excuse me.”

Rey runs to the bathroom. Pulling down her pants, she expects to see red, because the ache inside her tells her it has to be-

But there’s nothing, it’s just-

_Clear._

 

Rey does her best to wipe it off. Once done she leans against the wall of the stall, wondering what the hell just happened.

The ache still lingers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh, yeah, sorry about the creepy tone here in the end. If you remember, Rey's little monster hasn't let anyone that close to her since it "awoke" so I wanted her to be a little shocked by her body's reactions. It's not going to last XD I promise!
> 
> Also... 13. Happy now?
> 
> Also, I'm going to stop being subtle about who I am now, lol, because secrecy is fun when it's a one-shot but boo it's so boring when you're writing a multi-chap piece. I like symbolism, fairy tale elements, and I prefer short chapters. Who can I be?


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What, another update? 
> 
> Haha, yes! *^-^* A little shorter than the others, because apparently I still have no idea what I'm doing and I don't want to rush this XD
> 
> Sage made more mood boards! Wow, Sage, they're stunning and I screamed when I saw them show up in the Den!
> 
>  
> 
>  

At least working with Rose isn’t so bad. In fact, it’s probably the most fun she’s ever had with a coworker—used to taking care of herself, she’s always preferred working alone. Though, Rose is as confused as Solo is about the _werewolf_ thing.

“I’m not a werewolf. I’m something else,” she says when Rey confronts her. “ _You_ should be able to smell it, sweetie. Others with a lesser sense of smell have to use other ways of figuring it out- Besides. It’s rude to ask.”

_Rude to ask?_

Rey exhales slowly.

Rose is a great help, however. She deals with the backlog when she’s not on her doctor/mortician duty (which means she’s free surprisingly often, much more than Rey had expected), and only needs help now and then. Together, they have one hilarious moment when they try to figure out one of the machines Rey still hasn’t gotten around to using, ending up trying every key combination, their test samples coming out somewhat burnt.

On the other hand, the one who even put her in this position to begin with, is _not_  any help at all.

He takes to turning up several times every day, demanding an update, even if she’s only organized all the available evidence.

“I’m not going to work any faster with you hovering over my shoulder,” she grinds out between clenched teeth.

“No, you sure don’t,” he gives back, and Rey has to stop herself from preening because she has worked hard at dragging her feet after her whenever he comes in.

“Yes, so you should leave. I work _so_ much better with you not here.”

And so she doesn’t have to smell him all the time, or see his insufferable, handsome face, or feel what she can only at this time describe as a regrettable body reaction to his presence.

_We hate him, right,_ she asks _it_ , and there’s an affirmative grunt in her stomach, even if the ache grows slowly but steadily each day, and she has had to resort to using the heavy duty kind of panty liner.

Rose sighs when he leaves.

“He’s a very attractive man,” she offers on Rey’s speculative glance.

Rey decides to ignore that statement.

 

“Have you thought of my offer?” he asks when Rose isn’t there.

He stays for longer when Rose is away. She still hasn’t figured out why.

When Rose _is_ there, he only checks up with them for a few minutes, before he takes to stalking the basement corridor outside the lab, as if pacing back and forth would make the work go any faster. It goes on for minutes before he stops, bangs on the wall a couple of times and groans loudly—perhaps out of frustration, or whatever, she _doesn’t_ care—then finally goes back upstairs.

“No, I have not,” she responds, trying not to give in to the urge to lean in and smell him.

His smell has been tantalizing lately, the scent she’s come to know as his, with a hint of spice added to it.

_So, so stupid_.

“I could teach you,” he repeats. He’s the one to lean in—not her, she’s sure of it. “You only have to give me the reins.”

Her breath catches. She doesn’t know why the offer sounds so appealing, but her body reacts as it has done more and more lately—a shoot of lightning up her spine, a slow trickle of slick between her legs, a tightening of her core.

His Adam’s apple bobs. His lips move back and forth as if he’s tasting something. His bottom lip is red and wet, hypnotizing her.

Then _it_ pulls her back, reminding her he’s trouble.

“Don’t you have work to do?” Her voice is shaky as a leaf, but her gaze doesn’t waver.

 

He does give her some space—if setting himself in Rose’s chair is giving her space—then watches her work, until she snaps impatiently and threatens to call Amilyn.

It seems that is just about the only threat that does work on him.

But most of the time it feels as if he’s only humoring her.

 

It’s a week into the investigation when Rey finds gifts of food in the lab.

Rey stares at the offending morsel—a hefty slice of salmon on rye toast which has her mouth watering. It’d been a while since she ate salmon, and she does need to keep track of her nutrients-

Rose ooh’s and picks it up before Rey’s had the chance to take it, eating it in three quick successive bites.

“I love salmon,” Rose sighs.

_It_ thinks her head belongs on the ground. Rey’s right eye twitches.

“I…” Rose gulps. “I think that was from Finn.”

Rey frowns. “Was it?”

Rose nods. “We’re alright? I didn’t mean to steal it out from under your nose,” she winces, pleading with suddenly big, round and dark eyes.

_No, it belonged to us,_ _it_ tells her. And Rey too remains unconvinced.

 

Rose has the biggest crush on Finn, she soon learns, and apparently, he’s the kind to leave gifts of food for his loved ones. It sounds ridiculous, but Rey lets her have them, even if they’re always on her desk—not on Rose’s.

It’s when there’s a small box of freshly picked blueberries on Rey’s desk that Rose falters.

“Oh.”

She doesn’t touch the berries, instead moseys over to her own desk behind the mass spectrometer, emanating strong wafts of brine, causing Rey to sneeze.

It’s when Rey’s lips are stained blue, and the box is empty that she notices Rose’s sniffles.

“Rose. I’m so sorry,” she says, wiping her mouth.

“I should’ve known sooner,” she cries. “He always leaves the gifts on your desk. I feel so stupid!”

Rey hugs the woman she now doesn’t mind calling her friend, head-biting aside. “Finn doesn’t like me, not that way.”

“Well, it’s obvious he doesn’t like me. He knows I don’t eat berries.”

Rey doesn’t tell her Finn seems the oblivious type, that he probably needs a straight kiss on the mouth to realize Rose is in love with him. But, to make sure, she goes and asks him.

The poor man looks heartbroken when she gives him the news of Rose thinking the food were all from him, until there were blueberries on her desk this morning, and he rushes down to the basement.

 

For two days, neither Rose nor Finn show up to the station.

 

 

It’s during Rose’s self proclaimed vacation that they have a break in the case. Another compound has been present at each of the murders, as well as the murderer’s apartment.

It’s a minor detail her predecessor must have overlooked, and in the end it might not mean anything, but at least it gives them confirmation they’re dealing with one and the same perp.

Solo, though, jumps on the new lead as if he’s a dog about to go out for a walk, hopping up to her, brushing against her, and enveloping her within his large arms. For just a moment, she enjoys the warmth of him against her, until she remembers she’s not supposed to and goes rigid and unmoving. He breaks away, clearing his throat.

And he’s off, doing who knows what, and doesn’t return for the rest of the day.

 

The next day, he returns, an expression on his face very much like he’s got his tail between his legs, holding a brown paper bag in between his hands. It smells of roasted venison, and Rey grabs the bag without thinking and gobbles it down in seconds.

She licks the juices off her fingers, and that’s when she sees him prancing about, a smug grin on his face. And then he’s gone, without a trace.

 

This means something, she’s certain of it.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, one of my favorite Urban Fantasy novels has the alpha supply his prospective mate with food, as part of a courting ritual. I love that notion, and wanted to portray that in this fic. (And besides, when hasn't food been part of courting/mating rituals?)


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo!  
> So I noticed some of you were worried about Ben tricking Rey into accepting him somehow, so I just wanted to reassure you that everything in this fic is completely consensual, and Rey’s still just in denial. Her wolf, however, isn’t, so you can see the last chapter as Rey’s wolf side accepting Ben as her mate. The human side is a little bit slower and needs a bit (lot) more persuasion XD Don’t worry, we’re getting there ;)
> 
> Oh, and in this chapter there be vampires. You all know what vampires do? Good. So you've been warned. ;)
> 
>  
> 
> [Prompt inspiration](https://wewantreylo.tumblr.com/post/177796436312/sparklepoodles-red-riding-hood-reylo-au)
> 
>  
> 
> [Listen to the Little Red Playlist (Spotify)](https://open.spotify.com/user/qdy0ha5amhio85g49xujzfbxo/playlist/6u1UUiO37NHw8MDWythIhg?si=VXDnJjpHQLih322U3idXkQ)

Finn, Rose, and Poe decide it’s an excellent idea to show her around town now that she’s been living in Chandrila for a couple of weeks. Especially when they hear that she hasn’t had time to do so herself.

“I work, go home, eat, go for a run, and sleep, rinse and repeat,” Rey tells Rose once she’d returned from her mini-honeymoon. There’s a necklace of lovebites around her neck, and she just _glows_. Finn reveals similar symptoms. Amazingly, no one but Rey bats an eye at their very late return.

“But your weekends?”

“Have been commandeered by that one over there,” she says, pointing to the shadowed outline of Officer Ben Solo outside the frosted glass door.

Since she took the paper bag and devoured that piece of venison, he’s given her a wider berth, except-

_“Let me teach you,” his deep voice a hot murmur in her ear._

Except _that_. And it was only the once, and no, she absolutely didn’t have to excuse herself once he’d gone, and no, she did not have a dream that night about him bending her over the desk and holding her by the scruff of her neck while he-

Rey clears her throat.

“Yeah, he tends to be of a one-track mind when he’s onto a hot tail,” Rose says. “Oh, sorry. I meant _trail_.”

Rey frowns, not liking the sound of that for some reason. And _it_ wakes up— _it’s_ been uncommonly content the last day and a half, and Rey’s been too happy about it to poke at whatever that’s supposed to mean—and she gets the impulse to demand about him, his past, if there are- if there have been _others_.

“You were talking about going out?” Rey says, switching back to the previous topic.

“Well, there isn’t much around here, but there’s the local drinking hole Maz runs.”

Rey smiles, remembering the old lady fondly. “Okay, I like the sound of that. I don’t drink, though.”

Rose shrugs. “No problem. As long as you don’t mind us drinking?”

“No, not at all.”

 

It’s known as Maz’s Castle, in all likelihood because of the towers and turrets on the old Victorian building it’s situated in, even if it’s in the cellar. It’s dark and sleazy like most pubs, slightly damp, and the early night means it’s mostly empty. The TV in the corner is turned on to some football game, but only a tall ginger man watches the game, sipping on red wine.

“Oh, there’s Hux,” Poe says, a hint of longing in his voice.

Finn grabs Poe’s arm and steers him to a booth at the other end of the pub. “You promised us you would stay away from him.”

Wide-eyed, Rey watches Poe sit down with a sad sigh. She takes the seat beside him, her earlier wariness of the mischievous man completely vanished.

“You okay?” she whispers.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he says, winking, but his gaze is dull.

“Oh, it’s you three again.” Maz ambles over. “And little Rey,” she says, a warm smile greeting her.

“Hi, Maz,” she offers with a wave.

“What are you having?”

They place their order, and by the time Maz returns with their drinks, Finn and Rose have already started making lovey-dovey eyes at each other, completely oblivious to the going on's around them. And Poe—there’s more than a little eye flirting going on between him and the so-called Hux at the bar.

“Interesting,” Maz says after taking a look at Rey’s table mates. “I’ll be at the bar if you need some proper talking company.”

Rose and Finn shape up, if only for a moment, but as the evening moves on, and the glasses start to fill the table, with Rey still drinking mainly water, she realizes it hadn’t been the best of ideas to go out with a newly formed couple, or the… imp that is Poe who clearly wants to be somewhere else.

“Well, this sucks,” Poe says when Rose and Finn are properly making out. He gets up and walks over to the ginger man by the telly, sitting close to him, and soon they rise and leave for a darker part of the pub.

And Rey’s left alone as the third wheel to the now soon to be indecent couple on the other side of the table. Maz’s offer seems awfully appealing by now.

“You settling in alright, girl?” Maz asks as Rey approaches the bar.

The wizened woman emanates warmth, calm and a stillness like the mountains.

Rey decides to go for honesty. “Not really.”

“Hmmm,” is all she gets in reply, but there’s both patience and expectation in Maz’s expression.

“I don’t know what to make of this place. Of everyone.”

_Or myself._

Maz seems to read her thoughts. “You’re still holding on to your past. You have to let go.”

Rey studies the glass in front of her, but the glass disappears, replaced with a pool of red, and bloodied paw impressions leading away from it.

Rey shudders and closes her eyes. The visions won’t fade.

“I _can’t.”_

Maz leans over the bar, adjusting her glasses. “You fear something. What are you afraid of, Rey?”

“I-” Rey shakes her head. The vision finally fades.

A patron calls for Maz’s attention.

_What am I afraid of?_

_Yourself_ , something inside replies.

Rey drinks her water, considering the bottles on the wall.

“You reek,” says the patron sliding onto the stool next to her, “of _Ren_.”

The pale and wax-skinned Hux has returned, his cheeks pink and flush as if he has run through the cool October air.

Rey frowns. She smells just fine, she thinks, taking an inconspicuous whiff of herself. Pleasant, in fact. “What?”

“Ah. You’re likely more familiar with the name Solo than Ren. But they’re one and the same.”

Rey sits back. _Solo goes by another name?_

“The thought of Solo procreating gives me nightmares,” he drawls. He takes a sip of his wine. The liquid clings sickly to the glass as it slides back down.

 _It’s not wine_ , she realizes with a gasp.

“Where’s Poe?” she asks, dread filling her stomach.

“He’s… in the gents,” he replies, with an annoying smirk on his lips. He turns back to the game, dismissing her.

In a blink she’s outside the lavatories, ripping the door open. The main room is empty, and she checks the stalls, finding Poe in the last one. He leans his back against the wall, looking completely blissed out, likely on a high.

But on his neck is a bite mark stained with blood.

“Poe?”

He hums, turning his completely black eyes on her. “Hi, Rey,” he sighs happily. 

“You alright?” she asks, coming up to touch his chin. The bite looks horrible, the skin around it mottled purple in one giant bruise, but-

It’s already healing.

Poe fumbles with the buttons on his pants, trying to close them. Rey slaps away his hands and helps him.

“I’ll be fine,” he says, the dazed look vanishing rapidly. Instead, it’s replaced with a much sadder and lonelier one.

“Want me to drive you home?”

“Yes, please.”

 

Perhaps the werewolf next door isn’t the most dangerous person in town.

 

“He’ll be alright,” Rose promises. “It’s not the first time. Probably won’t be the last.”

“But he-” Rey touches her neck.

“He’s a vampire, Rey. What did you expect would happen?” Finn poses. “They only want one thing… Well, that and power.”

“So what does the woman who’s killing all the werewolves want?” Rey asks.

None of them answer. Rey tries to ignore the glances they give one another.

It doesn’t matter, what they think of her new perspective of the town, of everyone… of herself.

Rey’s determined to find out what the killer wants.

 

The lights are already on in her lab the next morning. Rey steps inside, expecting Rose, even if she knows, logically, that Rose is probably nursing a hangover, and won’t come in until noon at the earliest.

She has her back turned to Rey. Her gray hair is coiffed into a perfect bun, and despite the hunch in her back and the cane she leans on, her bearing is regal, the gorgeous autumn coat she’s wearing a royal coat on her silhouette.

Rey stops and stares at the woman as she turns around.

She’s short.

But her presence is huge.

“You must be Rey,” the woman says, coming closer. Rey momentarily considers curtsying, but rules against it.

 _It_ would like her to lie down and show her belly.

“Yes,” she says accepting her hand. Now that she’s closer, she senses something familiar about her, but can’t tell quite what it is.

“I’m Leia Organa.”

 _Oh_. She knows who that is. “You’re the Mayor.”

“Ah, you know already,” she says, folding her hands, one over the other, around the head of the cane. “Saves me from awkward introductions.”

Rey nods and flounders as she tries to think of what to say. “What brings the Mayor to my lab?”

Leia glances at the equipment around her a few seconds but eventually comes to rest on Rey. “I just wanted to see how our newest resident was doing. You seem to be settling in nicely.”

“Uh-”

“I see my son has taken a liking to you.”

“Your s- Oh. _Oh no._ ”

Leia raises a brow, and suddenly Rey wants to hit herself for not spotting the likeness.

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“Oh, well. No that’s because- uh- your son… no offense towards you, but your son is-”

“A jackass?”

Rey blinks, relaxes.

“It’s a common Alpha trait,” Leia continues and starts walking towards the door.

 _Alpha?_ What does that mean, she wonders?

 _Alpha_ , _it_ repeats, and there’s a sense of truth in her chest.

“I hope you’re coming to the costume party,” Leia says, hand on the door handle.

“Costume party?”

“On All Hallow’s Eve.” She slides a slip of paper out of her pocket, placing it on a nearby table. "Everyone's invited."

“But I don’t have a costume,” Rey says, feeling slightly panicked at the prospect of a party, with tons of guests, and at the thought of potentially going alone.

Leia smiles. “Then you’d better go and find one.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the lack of the big bad wolf in this chapter... But don't worry. We're getting closer and closer to the fun parts ;D


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dammit, I so wanted to post this on Halloween but work happened. And then we had a power outage, so there was no sort of writing yesterday. 
> 
> But time for the Halloween costume party! (AKA a proper Halloween celebration isn’t that common where the author lives, so she’s living out her Halloween dreams through this fic. And yes, this is my subtle way of telling you I’m ESL) 
> 
> Also, I’m trying to do this thing called a reylowrimo, so these remaining chapters will be counted towards my 50k wordcount, if the mods will let me do so. Wish me luck <3
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> [Prompt inspiration](https://wewantreylo.tumblr.com/post/177796436312/sparklepoodles-red-riding-hood-reylo-au)
> 
>  
> 
> [Listen to the Little Red Playlist (Spotify)](https://open.spotify.com/user/2l7jkga2t655vetk5fizbkpyj/playlist/7uk2pudl75SXkESts8ZGxF?si=5SGg7PUgTlyHzR4wfSbimw)

 

Rey stares at the invitation. It takes her a few minutes to realize the party is the next day.

“I won’t find a costume that fast,” Rey mutters, and nearly tosses the invitation away, but Rose’s hand stops her.

She hadn’t even noticed her come in. Rey shakes her head, she can’t think. It’s all a little bit too much.

Rose laughs when Rey finally admits to her fear. “Don’t worry, Rey. I can help you with the costume.”

“You can?”

“Yes! Trust me, I’ve got you covered.”

 

 

It’s a conspiracy. She’s sure of it.

Rose smiles gleefully as she holds up the deep burgundy cape. It has a hood, seems about thigh length, and has a beautiful embroidered leather fastening around the waist.

“Seriously?”

“Don’t think I haven’t noticed his adorable nickname for you,” she says, winks and smiles even wider.

“I’m not dressing for him,” she protests loudly.

“So dress for you,” Rose quips back, an annoyed tint to her voice. “Just imagine this, black tight dress pants, leather boots—I know my sister has some you can borrow—and you’re all set. I’ll do your makeup.”

“Rose,” she sighs as she sits down and massages her temples.

“Rey, you’ve got five hours before the party. Where do you think you’re going to find a costume this late?”

 

In short, she has no choice.

 

Finn comes to pick Rey and Rose up and he’s done nothing special towards a costume, except to put on a soft knit red cap, garnering the slight raised brow from Rose, and the comment, “Original.”

“I think so,” he says, smiling brightly, before he brings up a white ceramic pipe to his mouth.

“You’re not smoking that in here,” Rose admonishes.

“Don’t worry. It’s not lit.”

Rose, on the other hand, dresses in a stunning A-line gown, layers of tulle and fabric so thin it was almost seethrough, in colors as if she’s just risen from the ocean.

“Oh, I just had this laying around,” Rose lies when Rey stares, almost mesmerized, at it.

“Is this your magic?” Rey asks later when Rose brushes over her face with powders and creams, and in moments she can hardly recognize herself.

“Maybe?”

“Is this something I can be taught?” Rey wonders, in a selfish moment, thinking of how much time she could save.

“Oh, _honey_ , your magic is something else. Something much more primal. I can’t do what you can do. I can only do what comes natural to my people.”

“Witches?”

“Oh, no that’s not… You still haven’t figured it out.”

“You seem to forget that I used to have no idea any of this ever existed.”

Rose nods. “But you can learn.”

_But who’s going to teach me?_

”I’ll help,” Rose promises as if she can read the thoughts on Rey’s mind. ”If you want.”

Rey sighs.

”I’d like that.”

 

 

Rey has no idea what to expect—are they all going to be in their _hides_ or what, but then she’s not-

No, she’s not going to-

 _We could_ , _it_ suggests.

“Nope. So not going there,” Rey mutters under her breath.

“You alright?” Finn asks from his seat behind the wheel.

”I think so,” she denies, and masks herself with confidence.

Finn drives them up to one of the large mansions on the outskirts of town—the more proliferate neighborhood of Chandrila. It’s far from the largest house on the block, but big enough to get the point across: Someone important lives here.

A valet grabs the car, and Rey and her friends enter the house, resplendent in rich autumn colors, pumpkins and lanterns. There’s people everywhere. Some of them are dressed as extravagant as, and even more so than Rose, with hats made out of gilded metals, fabrics of golds and reds as befitting the season. The majority though, seem to have taken Finn’s approach with just a small detail here and there—a headdress, a cape and more wands than she thought she’d ever see. Rey gratefully doesn’t feel as the odd one out.

That doesn’t mean she doesn’t attract attention. Everyone’s interested in the newcomer to Chandrila, and Rey goes through more introductions than she’s done before in her life in just the fifteen minutes it takes her to get from the door to the ballroom they’re all heading to.

 _It_ quickly grows weary of all the handtouching, and before _it_ can release a growl, a known face comes and rescues her. Phasma, in as much as heroic garb as her action, picks her up, and deposits her at the buffet, with a gruff, “There you go. Eat up before you eat someone,” then disappears to the other end of the ballroom where more tall, statuesque women seem to be engaged in a-

_Wrestling match?_

Rey shakes her head, and the food does smell enticing and offers all her favorite meats. The punch is quite good too. There’s just something about it that has her fill up her cup a second time, and then a third.

“Okay, enough of that,” Rose says and steers Rey away from the buffet. “The elves brought the punch this year, I see.”

“But it’s so tasty,” Rey moans. Her hand smarts from a sharp pinch, and that breaks her out of the spell.

“Drink whatever you want, but if you don’t have elven blood, I recommend you stay away from the punch.” And then there’s a glass of sparkles in her glass—not even close to as appetizing as the punch, but she’s taking Rose’s hint and staying away from it from now on.

“Let’s go say hi to Leia," Rose decides. 

 

 “Glad to see you again, Rey.”

Leia’s hair is braided in an elaborate crown, and she wears a regal gray gown, and the cane is everpresent by her side.

“This girl is the reason our son is all tits up?”

Rey’s gaze is ripped away from the commanding presence that is Leia Organa, landing on the tall, gray old fox standing next to her.

“Han Solo,” he winks, stretching out his hand. It’s warm and engulfs her, and she likes him immediately. “Ben’s dad. Not that he’d ever call me dad with a straight face.”

“Oh, stop being so grumpy,” Leia chides, but there’s a warm quality to her expression. “Hope you’re having a good time, all of you,” she says to the three friends, dismissing them kindly. Han Solo mock salutes them and follows Leia’s trail.

“Don’t ask me how they’re married, but they are,” Rose says, holding Rey’s arm tight and leading her back to the ballroom floor. “Let’s dance.”

And while they dance, the glasses in their hands are exchanged with new ones as they empty, sparkles appear in the corners of her eyes, the rest of her vision a haze, and she laughs as if she doesn’t have a care-

Something pulls at her awareness, a draft, a movement behind her back.

Rose and Finn have their arms around each other, moving to a slow song, Rey long forgotten.

There’s no one to stop her from following the pull.

 

 

Rey ends up outside, in the mansion’s backyard. The October air cools her flushed cheeks and brings focus back to her thoughts. A few valiant trees still hold on to yellowed and reddened leaves, but most of them are bare, stretching their naked fingers up to the star and moonlit sky.

“Hello, _Little Red,_ ” he murmurs into her ear.

Once again he has snuck up on her, and her body reacts instantly, a shiver along her spine, her breathing shallow, an impulse to bare her neck.

“Solo,” she gasps.

“You look good enough to eat,” he growls, and there’s a tug on her cape.

Rey twirls, falling into his arms.

His chest is warm against her hands, and she leans back in his strong hold, not failing to notice how he pulls her hips close. Or the way his pale skin shines, or how his eyes glimmer with yellow reflections of the moon.

“You don’t have a costume,” she blurts, but she doesn’t regret the look of him in his plaid shirt and shearling coat.

He tilts his neck, coming close, and she loses herself in his dark gaze.

“I don’t need one,” he says, and with a quick movement, he pulls her hood off.

Rey tries to swallow the rapid heartbeat in her throat, and fails when-

Softness against her hair, just above her ear.

“Ben,” she whispers.

“Rey,” he murmurs back and teases the tip of her ear with a lick of his tongue.

Gasping, she pushes against him, into him. “Ben…”

He moves further, bending down to nip at her neck, a burning sensation that surely will leave marks in the morrow. It tickles, and she wants to pull away until he-

_“Oh!”_

“Mmmm,” he groans, laving licks over that spot in the bend of her neck, his teeth leaving delicious scratches over her skin and that space she doesn’t have a name for.

“What’s that?” she gets out, voice breathy and light. Over her, the sky is turning into a swirling vortex of bright lines and the edges of her vision are turning dark. She looks down, and the trees seem to stretch out their branches and thorns after her. She gasps, lightheaded.

“I don’t feel so good,” she whines.

“How much did you have to drink?” he asks, his hands an iron grip on her shoulders.

“I don’t know. I had three cups of punch and then… many many glasses more,” she giggles, and then her head is on his shoulder, and she giggles more, hysterically.

“Is the Big Bad Wolf going to punish me?”

There’s a low rumble against her front. “Not this time. I will kill the elves, though,” he groans.

Rey has one last look over his shoulder, and she’s confident she sees one of the elves—a tall, pale-haired woman, a glittery gold dress that falls like water over her lean body—and she thinks the woman waves at her, before Ben has her tucked in under his chin.

“I’ll drive you home.”

“Only if you promise to stay the night.”

“Not when you’re drunk.”

She mewls her discontent. _“Please.”_

 

 _“Please,”_ she repeats in the car as he fastens her seatbelt, his hair a tickle on her neck, and his groan is hot on her skin.

 

 _“Please,”_ she repeats once she’s in the safety of her home. Her bed is soft underneath her, but he’d be so hard on top of her.

Or under her.

“Please, Ben," she begs, pawing at his shirt, his beard, his hair. “I feel so _empty_ without you.”

_“Fuck.”_

He peels off her grabby hands. “Not like this,” he whispers and kisses the tips of her fingers.

 

“Please,” she whispers, seconds, minutes, hours later.

Outside, a lone wolf howls.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, let me not forget to show you what inspired my particular Red Riding Hood costume:


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, just a little content warning that this chapter starts with nothing graphic, but hints towards sexual harassment, but it’s over by the first few paragraphs. 
> 
> Also, we’re finally off anon! THE SUBSCRIPTIONS SHOULD NOW WORK! So if you’ve gotten this in the mail, just make sure you go back to check if you’ve read up on the previous chapters. (The subscriptions have not been working as long as this was anonymous, in case I failed to make that clear)

Once upon a time there was a handsome nurse who brought the blood samples to the lab.

The first time she met him, he smiled and said hello.

The second time, she learnt his name.

The third time, she gave him her name. He told her he already knew, and nodded to the name tag on her lab coat. Flustered and flushing, Rey struggled to come up with something to say, and _it_ awakened, reminding her to stay away from people, from _men_. 

Rey stopped smiling, forced out a thank you and goodbye. 

The man did not take the hint.

 

And he pushed.

 

And he pushed.

 

Until one day, _it_ snapped.

 

 

 

Rey jolts upright, gasping for air.

Her stomach roils and lurches. She makes it to her bathroom just in time.

 

There’s a big fat slice of ribeye in her fridge once she feels ready to face any thoughts of food.

The inside of her chest feels warm and light. But shame brings her down like rocks tied around her ankles.

 

 

 _We used to be different, you and I_ , she thinks.

She’s seated on the porch overlooking the lake and _his_ cabin. It looks quiet, but there’s smoke coming out the chimney. The smoke rolls down his house and over the lake.

“I can’t believe I did that,” she says, her cheeks blooming from the memories of the night before. “You would never have let me do that before.”

 _We’re not different,_ _it_ replies. _Our environment has changed._

“You tried to eat my coworker,” Rey hisses.

_He wasn’t worthy. You know he wasn’t._

“And _he_ is?”

 _It_ doesn’t even hesitate.

 _Yes, he is_ Alpha _._

“I don’t know what that means.”

Suddenly, on the other side of the lake, there’s movement—a shadow behind the windows, and then, the distinct sound of a door slamming open, then closed.

_He can teach you._

“I know.”

But she isn’t ready yet.

 

She is, however, ready to solve this case. Whoever’s been killing all the werewolves needs to be stopped. Rey dives into the evidence with renewed enthusiasm. She re-catalogs everything, turns everything up and over, trying to find just a tiny detail— _anything_.

That she works so hard that she hardly has time to speak, has nothing whatsoever to do with how shame twists her gut whenever she sees Ben.

Rose is ready to slap her when she doesn’t say anything to him in two days.

“Rey. I swear on the Scottish Isles I am this close to ending our friendship,” she says, pinching her fingers together, only a sliver of air between her thumb and finger.

Rey rolls her eyes. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I have no idea what happened between you two, but you need to fix this.”

“Why is this _my_ fault?! For all you know this is on him.”

Rey stops working when Rose doesn’t reply. When she looks up it’s to see Rose staring at her expectantly. Rey pinches her mouth closed, adamant not to speak, but there’s just something about Rose and the way her hair flutters as if there’s a strong draft from-

From where?!

“Are you using magic on me?!”

“Dammit, woman, you’re stubborn,” Rose sighs and sits down again. Whatever is pushing and pulling at her at the same time dies out, first to a slow trickle, and then it’s just gone.

Rey blinks, feeling as if a piece of the puzzle finds its way into the right slot, and sits down next to her friend. “Rose, are you the reason why I had to say yes to the job?”

“I’m so sorry.”

“How do you do that?”

“It’s my magic. Persuasion spells are my specialty. But I promise I only did it for your own good!” Rose reassures frantically. “I saw the pictures. You were in a bad spot. You needed to get out.”

Rey nods. For the first time since it happened, it doesn’t scare her that anyone knows and has seen the evidence of it.

“I’m not mad. I would probably have said no if you hadn’t used that spell. There was nothing I found tempting about the job or this town.”

“And now?” asks Rose carefully.

Rey hesitates.

She still finds some things strange—like the weird unspoken rule that she isn’t allowed to ask anyone what they are (even if Rose has promised to help her with that), the food, the smells and the sights, or the fact that her wolf doesn’t mind the closeness of Ben.

_Her wolf-_

“I’m a werewolf.”

“Oh, Rey,” says Rose, holding her hand to her chest, eyes tearing up. She jumps at Rey, holding her close. “Welcome home.”

And this time, it does feel like a proper welcome home.

 

It’s Rose who finds the clue Rey’s searched for.

“Uh, Rey…” Rose pulls out a picture of the knife Ben brought to her in what now feels like so long ago. “I think I saw this recently.”

Rey jumps at the promise of a new lead and leans over the shorter woman’s shoulder. “Alright. Where?”

Gnawing on her lip, she takes her phone out and goes through her recent photos. Rey averts her eyes when she starts to see pictures of Finn—and not the fully dressed kind.

“Oops. Sorry… Here. It was at the party,” she says, showing Rey a picture of Phasma with her arms around Finn in a playful neck hold. At first, Rey doesn’t know what she’s looking for until Rose zooms in on something in the background.

It’s out of focus, but the overall image is clear enough. A tall woman, turned away from the camera, and underneath the long almost white hair the hilt of a sword peeks out, glimmering and shining of colors just like the one they’d found.

Rey blinks-

Something flashes before her eyes. A tall wraithlike woman, long pale hair, and eyes set wide apart.

“That woman… I saw her,” Rey gasps. “I saw her too.”

“What? When?”

Rey shakes her head. “When… I need to talk to Ben.”

“Uh, yeah,” hums Rose, taking a step back. “I’ll send you the photo. You should probably talk to Leia, because if she was there, it probably means she was on the guest list.”

 _Oh_. “You’re absolutely right, Rose.” Rey hugs her quickly again, then she’s off to see the Big Bad Wolf.

 

He’s not upstairs. Amilyn smiles, apologizes for missing her at the party, and says she sent him home.

“He’s been terrorizing the office. He needed a break,” she tells Rey, winking.

Rey frowns, feeling yet again out of the loop.

“Don’t worry dear. He’s just fine. Why don’t you call him?” she suggests, then adds, “I’ll talk to Leia about the guest list.”

But he doesn’t pick up his phone. And there’s a flurry of excitement going on in her stomach, like fluttering butterflies and popcorn popping, when she seats herself in her car and starts the drive to his house.

Rey, on the other hand, feels sick.

 

 

Broken furniture, old newspaper magazines, old tattered clothing, dead houseplants, and more than a fair share of old pizza boxes lie in a heap on Ben’s driveway.

Rey stops and exits her car. It’s a bonfire. Or that’s what it looks like.

Why would he be building a bonfire, she wonders as she steps towards it. Everything smells so strongly of him. What a waste.

She imagines how it’d feel to take off her clothes and roll around in that intense concentration of his scent.

A creak from the porch. Rey’s gaze is wrenched towards the noise.

He stands, hardly a step out the door, a large brown paper bag in his arms, filled—expectedly—with more junk.

His eyes glaze over—she shouldn’t be able to see it, not _so_ far away—then he shakes his head and makes it down the porch, tossing his armful on the ground.

_“Rey.”_

His whisper shouldn’t sound like thunder, but it does.

Sounds, smells, her sight. Everything is enhanced. Something has happened within her. Her skin feels tight. Her bones ache.

 _It_ strains against the surface, ready to come out. _Release me._

Rey shakes her head. _Now’s really not the time._

In a blink, they’re not so far apart anymore. The Big Bad Wolf looms over her, staring into the deepest parts of her soul.

“Rey. Why are you here?” he asks, his voice a deep silky balm to the _monster_ inside her.

But the human inhales shakily, and the exhale even more so.

She can’t remember. She’s supposed to do something. Right?

“I-”

The world starts to tilt.

Hard pressure around her arms stops her from keeling over.

“Rey. You need to let it out.”

 _No!_ She can’t do that. Doing so would mean-

_Harsh snaps. Clashing jaws. Rumbling growls. Shouts of pain and fear._

“Rey. Listen to me. You’re going to be alright.”

“I can’t.”

“You’re not going to hurt me, I promise you, Rey.”

Rey blinks, finding focus in the intentness of his eyes. “What?”

The man releases her and steps back. Rey feels oddly bereft. Calmer, but confused. Especially when he discards his warm shearling jacket. Unbuttons and starts to pull off his shirt.

An expanse of alabaster skin. Averting her eyes proves to be a useless effort.

“Uh. Ben?”

The anticipation is a hollow fire inside of her. It only gets stoked when his fingers reach down and unzip his jeans.

“I’m going to show you there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

She _knows_ he isn’t talking about the same thing she’s wishing for.

 

When he falls down onto his paws, black fur bursting from his skin, the part of her that takes over is not the wolf she’s finally accepted lies dormant under her skin.

 

And when man has fully turned to wolf, standing on all four, his hot breath a white misty cloud as he huffs expectantly, Rey turns on her tail and runs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. I've struggled quite a bit with this chapter. Rey's fear in this chapter is pretty important. Remember that she isn't truly afraid of Ben. She's still afraid of the wolf, no matter how much she's already accepted that she is a werewolf. We're almost at the point where she _has_ to change into her wolf, don't worry. But not quite yet!


	10. Chapter 10

Her feet pound hollowly on the forest ground. The gray trunks of the trees flash by her, leaves and branches ripping at her hair when she comes too close.

The frigid air burns like liquid nitrogen down her throat, as she gulps for precious air to fill her lungs.

She doesn’t have time to-

She can’t stop.

If she stops, she’s- He’s going to-

And she doesn’t- She can’t-

 _Let it go_ , the wolf begs her.

“Now’s _really_ not a good time,” Rey mutters, and feels a slight tug on her pants—her stupid idea to waste breath on speaking has cost her her narrow lead. He only nips at the fabric on the back of her calves, but the message is clear: _I’m faster. Stronger. You can’t outrun me._

 _I’ll outrun him,_ her wolf reminds her.

_Nope. Not going to happen._

She knows. She knows nothing bad will happen. But the fear of letting go is stronger than that reassurance. Letting go means giving up everything she’s worked so hard to create—the meticulous routines that keep her sane, to not ride on the edge of insanity-

It means letting him close.

And she’s never let anyone close.

For her entire life, she’s been alone. There’s never been anyone there for her. She’s always made it on her own. The painful memories of a lonely and abusive childhood were only blunted by the disappointment of her lonely teens. And then the _wolf_  woke up and turned the first of her adult years into a fight for control.

She can’t let go, because she has never been able to trust the wolf-

_No._

She’s never been able to trust _herself._

 _Letting go means you’ll be free_ , says the last splintered vestige of herself.

Rey stutters. Her foot lands on a slip of ice hidden beneath the brown leaves.

The world turns up and over.

Her landing is more shock than pain, and Rey stares up at the overcast sky until her breath comes back—and it soon does, but… to the sound of _laughing_?

A few feet away from her, the wolf sits, huffing out breaths which sound suspiciously like laughter.

“What are you laughing at?” asks Rey, tensing her eyes at the animal.

Obviously, he doesn’t answer.

Sitting up, she feels her body cool down, and fatigue set in. And the panic is far gone. Because she has won, once again, over the monster inside her—successfullly containing it until she has to again.

Or did she?

Rey folds her arms around herself and releases a deep sigh.

The wolf- Ben tilts his head, and releases a small whine, as if wondering what’s wrong.

“Can we go home now?” Rey asks. She just wants to go home, and take a nap.

And then she remembers the reason she came.

“Ben. Can you change back?”

The wolf gives her an unimpressed stare.

“We’ve got a lead.”

That has him moving, but not in the way she wants him to. He turns to his left and shambles away through the trees.

Rey frowns, but does the only logical thing and follows.

A short walk leads them to-

Rey stops, blinking. “How did we get back here so quickly?”

In a fluid motion, much more so than when he’d shifted from human to wolf, Ben turns back to a ripped exemplar of a man, his back turned to her.

Rey bites her lip.

Those dimples-

He bends down, to pick up the clothes he’d discarded recently.

Rey swiftly turns around, releasing a shuddering breath.

“It wasn’t that hard to make you run in a circle,” he replies, the rustle of his clothing accompanying his deep voice.

Rey laughs lowly. Of course he would herd her to wherever he wanted. “You’re such an arrogant jerk, you know that?”

“Of course I am, _Little Red.”_

He’s snuck up on her— _again._ And this time her grabs her, pulls her around—in much the way he did that night underneath the stars and the moon—and Rey’s hands land once again on his chest.

“Careful,” he murmurs, and takes her hand—the one over his heart—and squeezes it. He’s closer, his pupils are taking over the entirety of his-

“Ben, we’ve got a case to solve-”

“Just shut up one moment,” he tells her, and Rey doesn’t _want_ to disobey. In fact, the only thing she wants to do is listen to him, all day, and obey every single thing he tells her to. Over and over. Preferably while in bed. On his sheets. “You are so close to your heat, can’t you feel it?”

Oh… so that’s what it is?

“Once we’re done with this lead—I really don’t give a fuck anymore—you’re coming with me, and I’m going to eat you out until you can’t even-”

His words are interrupted by the offensive sound of her ringtone.

Ben snarls, and finds her phone in her coat, and answers it with an angry curl of his lips.

“Yes!” he roars, stalking away from her.

Rey draws fresh air into her lungs, and stumbles when she tries to follow. Ben shoots out a hand to steady her, all while he talks to whoever’s called.

“Yes, she’s here- No, _we have not_ , not that it’s any of your business- Can’t this wait? Fuck it. Alright, _fine…_ I’m _not_ sorry… Yes, we’re going. Yes, right now. Bye…” A deeply frustrated sigh. “Yes, I love you too, mom.”

“Was that…?”

“Yes. It was the mayor.”

“Oh, that’s just lovely.”

“Get in the car, Rey.”

That’s not going to work, she thinks giddily.

“I don’t think I can drive-”

“Oh, you’re not driving in your condition,” he says, and exchanges her phone with the keys in her pocket, and Rey’s just glad he’s still holding her up. “I’m driving.”

She can just nod, and think about the things that are about to come.

 

Somewhere between Ben’s house and the police station Rey regains her senses. Ben has let the windows down completely, and she can still sense his smell, but it’s not as oppressive as before.

“How long?”

“Just a few minutes,” Ben replies.

“No. I mean, how long will my heat last?”

His hands clench around the steering wheel. “Depends. If this is your first-”

“Yes.”

“ _Fuck_ … Two to three days is normal, but since you’ve not had one before and you’re- How old are you?”

“Twenty-four.” _How old are you,_ she wants to ask, but she already knows, because she’s looked him up in the police database.

Ten years her senior, and a strangely spotless record considering his… temper.

“I- I don’t think you’ll get through it in less than three days. Maybe four. Possibly five.”

“…And how do I make it pass quicker? I’m guessing being in heat means I can’t work or see anyone-”

“Fuck. Have you already conveniently forgotten what I said just before we left?”

“No. I _remember_ ,” she says, and now it’s her turn to clench her hands, but without anything to find purchase on.

“You’re going home with me.”

“Fuck that. This is all just hormones and shit. I don’t have to do anything.”

“Fucking hell, Rey!” he growls, and slams the breaks, stopping right before the station. “We’re having a talk about this later, but you can forget about riding this out on your own.”

“I _love_ your definition of what’s talk or not. Basically you just want to tell me what to do, and I should just listen?!” Rey shouts after him as he stalks towards the entrance and through the reception area. Poe gives them a wave, and grins as he lets them inside.

“Yes! That’s exactly what you should do!” he retorts and grabs her hand when she stops in front of the elevator, pulling her towards the stairwell. “I won’t be responsible for what happens if we’re alone in a confined space.”

A flutter in her chest. “Thank you,” she says, dipping her chin towards her chest.

He groans. “Don’t say things like that.”

He still holds her hand—it’s not like she wants him to let go—when they reach Holdo’s office. Leia, Amilyn, Rose and Finn are there, their heads turning as one when Ben bursts inside, as per his usual fashion.

“Good you made it,” Leia says, an eyebrow raised as she takes an almost imperceptible sniff. “Sit down. Rose, please open the window, or this will go poorly for all of us.”

And then Amilyn starts, “We have a name.”

 

 

Rey follows Ben back to the car, walking slowly, precariously, as if in a daze.

His steadying hand is gone.

 

_“-unfortunately, this means you’re off the case,” is the end to Amilyn’s speech._

_“Fuck that!” Ben flies up._

_“Ben!” Leia says calmly, but with a cool that could freeze the bottoms of the ocean. “Sit down.”_

_He sits down immediately, pissed off and dangerous not even beginning to describe his expression. But then he softens, “I have to explain,” he pleads, knuckles whitening on his fists._ “Please.”

 

Ben opens the passenger door, and waits. Rey enters the car, avoiding his dark gaze.

It’s Rey who rolls down the windows before Ben has even started to pull out from the station. By now, night has started to fall, and once they exit Chandrila and hit the country roads, it’s a pitch black sky and a jagged and even darker forest that greet them.

 

 _His_ please _hits her right in the gut._

_She can’t believe what she’s just learned. She’d forgotten all about Ben’s other name—Kylo Ren, Amilyn had just told her—and what she now knows about him and what he’s done-_

“So?”

The car decelerates. Ben brakes, parking the car on the side of the road. His sigh tells of worry and frustration. Rey wants to stroke the lines marring his forehead, kiss the frown off his face.

 

_“A moment, if you please,” she says, and without a word, they all leave the room, even Amilyn—despite it being her office—leaving Leia alone with Rey._

_Leia sits down beside her, exuding warmth and trust, the motherly kind she’s never experienced. Rey’s mesmerized, awaiting whatever the older woman wants to say to her._

Ben takes a long time before speaking. But finally, he does.

“When a pup grows up, he either conforms to the existing pecking order, challenges the _Alpha_ , or leaves to establish his own pack.”

 

_“My son has done many stupid things in his life. And when he was younger, he was even more stupid than he is now- Oh yes, I can say that, he’s my son.” Leia chuckles. “He’s a decent man now, and try to remember that when you talk to him.”_

And he tells her everything.

Silence fills the car. Ben averts his gaze. A car passes them, flashing their high beam.

Then, “I’ll drive you home, I can walk back to my place.”

Rey shakes her head. “No, Ben.”

“Rey, it’s okay-”

“Yes, it _is_ okay. She’s in the past. You’re with me _now_.”

 

_“How can he even be a cop?”_

_Leia’s gaze remains patient and kind. “If you haven’t noticed, things work a bit differently here. He’s atoned for his past. He’s moved on. We’ve forgiven him.”_

_“You love him, don’t you?”_

_Rey nods, blinking away hot burning tears._

_“Then you’ve already forgiven him.”_

 

His hand is hot at the back of her neck. The sensation is like coming home after a long day at work.

“You’re sure?”

“Yes.”

“Then you’re coming home with me.”

She nods. Closes her eyes.

“Good girl.”

 _Oh._ She inhales sharply, feeling her synapses shortcircuit, a frisson of pleasure shooting up her spine.

He starts the car, and the engine roars as he pulls out on the road—driving like she knows he does, a madman with a target.

“Fuck,” he shouts, swerving, but it’s already too late.

Rey opens her eyes to blinding light and the impact of another car.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  
> 
> [My tumblr](https://j-dryless.tumblr.com/)


	11. Become the Beast

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1 song is quite important for the later part of this chapter, Become the Beast by Karliene. Which you can find in the [Little Red Playlist (Spotify)](https://open.spotify.com/user/2l7jkga2t655vetk5fizbkpyj/playlist/7uk2pudl75SXkESts8ZGxF?si=5SGg7PUgTlyHzR4wfSbimw)
> 
> So trigger warning wise... Since it’s that song and it’s the title of this chapter, I feel pretty confident I’ve warned you enough where this is going. If monsters and monstrous behavior doesn’t work for you, might wanna skip this chapter ;)
> 
> Also. Posting this slightly tipsy, on very little sleep, and chocolate mousse cake, so give me a shout in case something looks really weird lol.

Her consciousness returns in flashes. The engine running on neutral—a slight hitch every few seconds, which doesn’t sound completely right. The wipes are on, but she can’t hear the rain. And the uninterrupted siren noise of the car horn—why won’t it just stop?

There’s a brief moment where she can’t remember what happened, but then the pain hits. All across her body. Her face which feels—and smells—burnt. Her right temple after it probably hit the window. But among all this, it’s her neck that hurts the most.

She entertains the cynical thought of never being able to hold her head up straight again.

Rey tries opening her eyes, only to close them from the light beaming straight into her eyes.

_What happened?_

A chiming noise interrupts the blare of the car horn.

Has the ambulance already arrived? But who would call them?

She must make a noise of distress, since whoever’s there shushes her, before grabbing her roughly and pulling her out.

This time when she opens her eyes, she can see.

“ _Ben_.”

Her voice is no more than a rasp.

“Shut up,” orders a female voice. 

His head lies across the wheel. His hair is matted with blood, and the little she can see of his face tells a story of bruising and pain.

The airbag must not have gone off.

Rey whines, stretching her hand towards the ever-diminishing car. The grip around her torso tightens, a grunt and-

Silvery blonde hair drapes over her shoulder, down her chest.

_No._

_Oh no, please. No._

Rey thrashes in the arms of her captor. 

“Let me go!” she cries.

“Difficult child,” the woman croons. “Be _still_.”

Rey’s arms fall mutely to her sides. Her legs stop struggling, limp and useless.

“No, don’t, please don’t… _Ben_!” she pleads and begs.

Ben remains unmoving, horribly still.

_Is he-_

_“Ben, please, wake up!”_

“Hush, little one.” A clammy hand caresses her cheek. “Go to _sleep_.”

And Rey sleeps.

 

There’s silence.

Wait-

Not quite.

_Scritch, scratch… scriiitch… scratch, scratch._

She opens her eyes to the sounds of chalk drawn across a surface. The surface on which she lies—the floor of a large room, dark walls the color of slate, and relatively nondescript, except for the meshwork of metal pipes and dead ceiling fans.

She can’t move, but three things are for certain. She’s bound somehow to the cold concrete floor, the killer is right by her, and she’s marking the floor-

And just like that, Rey knows she’s in a circle, and she’s the next in line for whatever ritual the killer has been performing on those poor werewolves. And she’s right there, right by Rey’s feet, the blonde almost silver hair sliding over her arms and covering her face as she draws circles and shapes on the floor.

As if noticing the attention, or maybe it’s from Rey’s stuttering breath, the woman stops and turns to her. Behind the hair hides a diamond-shaped head, flawlessly made skin and cheekbones so sharp they could cut. Deepset gunmetal eyes and ruby red lips.

Rey closes her eyes, trying to will the vision away. _It’s all a dream. I’m at home, dreaming, not here with-_

“Ah, finally awake,” the woman sings.

Rey’s eyes snap open.

It’s not a dream.

The woman smiles at her, a light baring of teeth, much like an animal about to snarl.

It’s a nightmare.

“So we meet at last, _Little Red_.”

Rey inhales sharply.

“Ah, yes. I know who you are. Rey _._ Disgusting little _cur_ … Do you know who I am?” she asks, drawing to her full height, far taller than Ben. She wears that shimmery golden dress Rey thought she’d only dreamed, which clings to her reedlike frame, enhancing her sharp hipbones and narrow waist.

She swallows down the painful lump in her throat. “ _Snoke,”_ Rey hisses. “You’re Alannah Snoke.”

Alannah Snoke, the witch who Ben had narrowly escaped from with his sanity still intact.

“Ah. You’re on to me. I was wondering how much time I had left. Tell me, how _much_ do you know of me?” Alannah asks. “Did he tell you about me? Did he tell you I was his lover?”

“I know enough!” Rey shoots back. “I know that you manipulated Ben into doing your bidding. You pushed him to horrible things in exchange for your-” Rey curls her lip, “-your _love_.”

“You can’t even say it, can you? He killed, maimed and slaughtered werewolves. All so he could be with me.”

Shaking her head, Rey denies it.

“You must have had a spell on him. It was an unnatural obsession.”

“Oh, there might have been spells involved, but none on your precious Ben. You should know by now that werewolves are resistant to spells.”

Rey inhales sharply.

“Tsk. _Most_ werewolves are resistant to spellwork. _All,_ except you.”

_Oh._

Alannah walks out of the circle, leaving Rey to gasp for air.

“You’re starting to realize it now,” she says from somewhere in the dark. “That what’s different between you and them is that you’ve locked your wolf away. Somewhere so far hidden that you’ll never get it back.”

_No. That’s not true._

There’s no response.

“Why are you doing this to me?” she cries out. A terrible tremor starts in her chest, and soon sobs wrack her entire body.

“Oh, be quiet,” mutters Alannah and snaps her fingers.

Tears stream from her eyes, down to her ears, pooling uncomfortably. But her throat can’t produce any more sounds.

_Please._

Nothing. There’s nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

She wants to curl in on herself. Why is her wolf gone? What did she do to push it away? The one time in her life that she needs it, and the wolf doesn’t respond.

“Oh, poor thing.” Snoke moves into the circle again, crouches beside Rey, and extends a hand to Rey’s face. The long nails nick her skin as the witch wipes her tears. “There, _Little Red_. There’s no point in crying. We’re almost at the end.”

Snoke sits up straight, and moves her other hand from behind her back. A glint of steel pulls Rey’s eye.

A scimitar. The same curved blade Ben had brought her, way back, forever ago.

Nausea boils in her stomach.

“Who could have imagined that Kylo Ren would fall for a cripple like you?” Alannah tuts. With a flick of her fingers, the markings on the floor start to shine, lighting up the room, and casting Alannah’s face in a sickening glow. “But who could have imagined that it’d be you that will give me exactly what I need?”

Rey stares at the madwoman, even though she’d rather puke. What does Snoke want with her?

“Ah, that got your attention. You see, Kylo ran away when his love for his mother proved too strong. He refused—even if he came so close to killing her. And _I_ , I was just a puny witch. What I offered him, a place at my side as I ruled this town, wasn’t enough.”

_“She wanted to watch it all burn. I just wish I’d have realized that sooner,” Ben says, hiding his face behind his long curls. “She was delirious. She still is.”_

“It’s his place, right beside me. And if our love wasn’t enough, I needed to find a way to possess him completely. If I turn into a wolf, especially one on the cusp of heat—he’ll have no choice but to come back to me. I’ll become his mate. He’ll be _mine.”_

 _Wait._ Be hers? Does that mean Ben lives?

The roiling sensation in Rey’s stomach grows, threatening to come out.

“Of course. The other werewolves proved too resilient for my magic. I had to resort to drugs. The ritual didn’t take.

“But you, my dear, you didn’t need to be drugged. I didn’t even need to put you in chains-”

A muted howl interrupts them. Alannah pauses, an annoyed expression crossing her face, her head turned towards the sound. Rey still lies useless on the ground. She wants to cry out, shout for help, whimper and plead. But she can’t even give into the sick feeling in her gut.

“Ah. It seems our time is up, little wolf,” Alannah says, almost regrettably. She rises up, standing above Rey, one foot on each side of her hips. “Don’t worry. I'll take good care of him.”

_No, you won’t. He’s mine._

Another howl. Closer, louder.

A pained cry almost breaks out of her throat.

Alannah raises the knife, high over her head.

Her stomach churns, rolls, burns and _claws_.

_Let me out._

Rey inhales, calm settling over her.

_Yes. Come out._

Alannah strikes. The bonds holding Rey down loosen.

Her hand grabs Snoke’s wrist just as the knife’s about to pierce her chest.

The human flesh is frail in her grip. A crush. A crunch. A cry.

“He’s mine _, bitch.”_

Rey embraces the darkness. The wolf comes through—it’s pain, horror, corruption, and even more pain. And then it all disappears. 

Only a roaring hunger remains.

And the whimpering woman in front of her, now small on her knees, not even reaching high enough to look her directly in the eye, cradles her crushed wrist.

There’s a delicious smell underneath all that acrid scent of magic. It smells of fear, of pain.

_Of hopelessness._

It takes all but a moment: A rush forward. A growl from her throat. Jaws open, closing, snapping together.

Slick, horrible, tasty wetness fills her maw.

Rey feasts.

 

Some time passes before she senses a presence, one she’s aching to know.

The door breaks down in splinters. Rey turns, licking her lips, whining and impatient.

A black wolf pads in on long ,confident strides. Rey backs up from her kill, presenting her gift to him. The Alpha wolf accepts the meal.

Hunger satiated, Rey bumps the larger wolf affectionately with her head, nips the bottom of his jaw. Interest sparks in his eyes, a low playful growl, and he reciprocates her bump, once, twice, thrice.

The play turns rough, too wild to be contained in this confined space. Rey runs out the door.

And the Alpha wolf follows her tail.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyone in human form: *shouting* No, Rey! You don’t know where that’s been!
> 
> Chat excerpt between me and my friend Alannah:  
> Me: Would you mind lending me your name for my villain?  
> Alannah: OMG what does the bad guy do?  
> Alannah: As long as it’s not killing puppies it’s fine  
> Me: Well… She kills werewolves?  
> Alannah: Hahahaha SO I’M CLOSE  
> Alannah: I hope she dies a spectacular death  
> Me: Oh yes she will XD
> 
> So, Alannah, what did you think about getting eaten?
> 
>  
> 
> [My tumblr](https://j-dryless.tumblr.com/)


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Smut?

They run for miles.

The smell of the damp leaf-covered earth intoxicates her. She could stop and roll around in the dirt and leaves, cover her fur with it, shake it off and roll around some more.

But there’s just something in the way he follows her. She doesn’t want to stop. And neither does he. It’s a sensation of _just right_ , the way his eager pants sound as he follows her closely on the trail. The way he nips at her legs, pushing her to go even faster.

At one point or another, the path must end. Somewhere where their paws will tire, until their limbs grow fatigued, and their lungs ache too much to draw another breath.

And when that moment comes, it’s at a place that smells like something she could call home.

A simple thought takes her from standing on four to stumbling forward on two, but he’s there, holding her up by her arms.

“Steady. The legs can be shaky after shifting.”

His warmth is inviting, holding the chilly November air at bay. Rey leans in and inhales him—smoke, sweat and… _power._

A shiver travels up the entire length of her back.

That’s when she notices she’s completely naked.

Her gaze dips, only for a moment. The amber of his eyes enthralls her, and he moves even closer— _yes, please_ —crowding her, commanding her attention. “Accept me.”

“Accept what?”

He rolls his eyes. “I have to teach you everything, don’t I?”

She shivers again, but this time it’s because she doesn’t hate the sound of that.

“Accept me as your mate. _Please_ , Rey.”

_Yes. Yes, yes, yes, a thousand times, and a thousand more._

She nods, and in a heartbeat, he has her in his arms. The world shifts around them—he moves so fast it passes by her in a blur—and she hasn’t even had the chance to enjoy the feel of his arms around her, nor how he _feels_ against her-

But there’ll be more. She knows she’ll have so _much more._

-before she’s on the bed, _his_ bed. His smell invades her, filling her nostrils, her lungs, her pores.

And _then_ he’s all over her. Hands cover hers, pulling them up over her head.

“You have no idea how much I’ve thought of this moment,” he tells her.

“Oh?”

“No freaking idea,” he says, leaning down over her, coming closer and closer, but still not close enough. His mouth hovers above hers, teasing slightly on her lower lip. Why isn’t he kissing her already? Why haven’t they kissed yet? They should be kissing be now, right? Yes. _Yes, yes, please, Alpha. Kiss me._

Rey moves first, pushing up, touching her lips to his, and the first moment is just as soft as she imagined, and his shock allows her to explore him more—more than she ever thought she’d be able to. Because he’s so—commanding. It shouldn’t be Rey who flicks her tongue out, licking, teasing, nibbling-

His shock breaks with a growl, and he pushes her back down into the pillow, one hand at the bottom of her throat, warning, while he kisses her thoroughly—tongue invading her, devouring her.

“Shouldn’t have done that, _Little Red_ ,” he murmurs, breaking the kiss.

“I know nothing about this,” she retorts, then adds, teasingly, “Someone did say they were going to teach me.” The man draws breath sharply, probably to reprimand her for her lip, but she’s quicker, “Please, _Alpha._ Show me my place in all this.”

A beat passes, then two. Rey ventures a smirk, pleased to see him just as flustered as he’s been making her, but then he growls, again, and pushes his hips down-

_Oh._

“Oh!” she gasps.

“This little _Omega_ doesn’t know how to behave,” he chuckles, and no, maybe she doesn’t but that word— _Omega, yes please, say that again_ —feels as right as a light summer rain on a hot day in July, or like reading in a cozy nook on a foggy day—or just like breathing.

He moves his hips again, every inch of his front touching hers and Rey just breathes through the emptiness. The _emptiness_ that’s always been there whenever she’s around him, ever since she met him, and now. _Especially now_. 

“Ben, please.” Her hips surge up towards his. His lips crash down on hers, marking her, inhaling all her exhales, all while Rey tries to get closer and closer to him, but he’s not having any of it—working his hips opposed to hers, not allowing her that angle that will make everything complete. She releases a frustrated groan. “Please _Alpha_ , please just-” _Knot me_ “-fuck me.”

Ben groans against her throat, right at that point she likes so much and wishes he’d bite. “Much better, little _Omega_ , but you… _you_ deserve a spanking,” he growls.

And with that, he flips her around on her stomach. A warning tells her to lie still, while his hands keep her wrists in a tight hold behind her back. “Ten strikes. Do you think you can take that?”

Rey gasps, her body slicks up—even more—and just before she speaks she thinks, _this is crazy, I shouldn’t act like this, what kind of virgin am I actually?_ “That won’t be a problem, _Alpha_ ,” she promises, thinking that ten slaps on her ass should be nothing-

But then his hand swishes through the air, making a smarting contact with her flesh—she really should’ve thought about the strength in his arms or the _size_ of his hands—and she cries out, mostly from shock she tells herself, but that turns into a lie once the second strike lands on her other cheek.

“Fuck,” she shouts by the fourth, and his chuckle is dark and knowing.

“Starting to regret that mouth by now?”

_“Never_ ,” Rey mutters and is rewarded by a fifth, and sixth smack. But the heat in her upturned cheeks are too lovely for comfort, and the pain is just this side of exquisite, and by the time Ben lays the tenth hand imprint on her ass the blood rushing towards her abused flesh—and her cunt—is _not_ so tolerable.

The aching emptiness hasn’t exactly lessened. No, instead it’s like a gaping maw of need and warmth and wetness.

“Ben. Please. Now?” she asks, reduced to monosyllabic sentences. She risks a glance over her shoulder and meets his completely darkened gaze. Her gaze travels lower, and lower, because the movement of his hand pulls it down to where he’s stroking his cock-

And it’s all too real, and Rey’s all too glad she took that medicine Leia had instructed her to take, or _not_ —she was pleased either way—but Rey knows she’s not quite ready for that _complication_ yet.

-”Ask me again, _Omega_ ,” he says, continuing to stroke himself, hypnotizing her with his movements.

To call him big would be an understatement.

_Proportional._ That’s better.

Still not the perfect descriptor.

“Ask me _again,_ Rey. _”_

Rey swallows painfully. “Please, Ben. I need you inside me.”

Several things seem to happen all at once, he releases her hands, pulls her up on her knees, knocks her knees apart with a certainty and urgency in his own. With a hand on the back of her neck, he lines up with her entrance, his blunt head teasing her a second before he-

“Oh,” she gasps, but air is sparse- there’s just no space left.

He releases small pants as they both get used to the feel of each other—or maybe he just waits until she’s not so overwhelmed by the fullness and pressure that’s oh so delicious, not nearly as painful—not at _all_ —as she’d thought it would be, as she’d been led to believe.

It’s right. It’s everything she ever wanted. But in lack of proper words, she can just moan, and lean down on her elbows as he finally starts to move, pushing even further into her. Rey realizes she was wrong, she absolutely still can’t breathe regularly, not when he slams into her like that, as if he’s trying to get away but is always brought back like a rubber band snap.

Rey starts to keen, the friction so good, so tight and the filthy, wet noises of her cunt fill the room alongside her moaning, and something begins to build, something she wants to chase after until she-

Ben stops.

Rey cries into the mattress and tries to wiggle her hips back at him, but he just holds her still with a bruising grip.

Everything throbs and pulsates, and it’s so unfair because she was _right_ there-

“Please, Rey, let me knot you,” he begs over and over, his words finally breaking through her pleas of “Don’t stop, don’t stop.”

Rey nods frantically, uttering a desperate “Uh huh,” and Ben surges forward, leaning over her, whispering “Thank you, thank you.” His fingers find her clit and slips over it because she’s so ridiculously wet, but he bears down on it, and with the rhythm of his thrusts, he brings her to the brink just as he falters-

A grunt, and then there’s pain in that wonderful point where neck meets shoulder and then…

And then he swells, and he swells and he swells.

And all Rey feels is bliss, pleasure, contentment, and the snap of her own orgasm as she rides the edge of pain both in her shoulder and her cunt, and it’s all followed by the semilucid thought of _We fit together._

 

 

Ben pulls her over on her side, and while his knot is still inflated, he uses his fingers to bring her over and over again.

“Fuck, you’re gorgeous when you come,” he whispers after the fifth time, or is it the seventh time? She wants to slap his hand away, but he’s so gentle, yet relentless, and she just doesn’t care except for the way he feels and the way she no longer aches.

But then his knot deflates, and Rey whimpers when he pulls out. “Shhh,” he calms her, and she does feel better when she realizes he’s just leaving her to fall in between her legs, and fill her once again.

He’s heavy, but it’s a weight she’s ready to bear, especially when he tilts his head in such a manner that her mouth waters. She finds that lovely spot that smells so enticingly and strongly of him, and she covers it with her lips, licks it, nibbles it.

He groans, movement stuttering, and she bites down, breaking his skin in a second.

His knot grows, and Rey licks the wound until it no longer bleeds.

Ben flips them around, and she nuzzles his jaw while he fills her with his seed—the bed is already drenched in both of their fluids, and there'll only be more. For a moment, Rey's chest twinges with disappointment because she _did_ take those pills.

“You’re alright,” he whispers, laying a kiss on her forehead, as if sensing her thoughts. “You’re with me now.”

_Yes_.

She’s with him now.

And he's with her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally lost my ABO virginity!
> 
> Truthfully... there might be more than one chapter left XD
> 
> [My tumblr](https://j-dryless.tumblr.com)   
>  [My twitter](https://twitter.com/Drylesswrites)


	13. Chapter 13

Rey wakes to the scent of fried eggs and bacon, and she’s absolutely famished. But there’s no way she’s getting up from bed. It’s so soft, and the scent is so comforting and perfect, and she rolls around in it, and hugs the pillow Ben slept on.

And she remembers fondly, that she spent most of last day  _ and  _ night on top of Ben, the §two of them stuck to each other thanks to… hmmm,  _ frequent  _ (and almost neverending) knotting. Just thinking about it makes her produce even more slick—which absolutely  _ shouldn’t _ be possible, but there she goes—and Rey moans into the pillow, wishing it was Ben and not an inanimate object.

At the very least, he’s close and gaining, if the increasing smell of food is anything to go by—and yes, he’s there in the door opening, completely naked, carrying a tray of food, enough for the both of them.

She’s not entirely certain which dish she’ll start with, and she eats with her right hand, while her left paws at the other goods, much to his chuckling amusement. The food is delicious on its own, and she’s already quite aware of how good the man is in bed, but combined, she’s not too far from heaven.

It might be afternoon when there’s an annoying noise, maybe it’s a doorbell, maybe it’s someone shouting. However, none of them are inclined to check where the sound originates from, especially since Ben has taken up residence between her legs, eating her out just the way he promised he would—when was it, two days earlier? Yeah, that seems about right.

And she’d rather have him inside of her, and she’s confident that he’d rather be there too, until he whispers against her stomach, “You taste so good. Better than anything I’ve ever had,” and that must be a lie, but he hums happily when her cunt gushes on his face, so maybe it isn’t so much of a lie—but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t beg, and beg, and beg for him to knot her again.

“Ahem.”

Rey’s eyes snap open, but she can’t see much anyway because of the blanket Ben threw over her, in some sort of effort to preserve her dignity.

“Oh, it’s not like I haven’t seen this sort of thing before,” Holdo muses. “I was around when your mother met Han.”

Rey makes a gagging noise. Ben sounds almost like he’s doing the same. “I did not need to know that.”

“Maybe not. I’ll be in your living room. I recommend you get dressed,” Holdo orders and as she turns to go down a chilly wind blows through the bedroom as if they’d opened the door to the arctic ocean, turning their heads clear and not so intent on knotting and mating. 

 

 

Finn takes Ben’s statement while Rose examines Rey.

“You do know you won’t find anything,” Rey whispers to Rose. “It’s not like-” she starts but then remembers that saying that Ben had licked her all over probably isn’t the thing you say in front of your boss. 

Rose grins as Rey flushes a brilliant red. “This is more of a medical exam, sweetie. We’ve already been all over the crime scene,” she says as she warms the head of the stethoscope in her hand. “But can’t be too careful with your first heat.”

Luckily she doesn’t have to take off her clothes, because then she’d have to explain the weirdly symmetrical marks all over her body, not to mention the bites on her neck and shoulders. 

Glancing over at Ben, she can’t help but feel pride when he accidentally flashes one of her marks as he ponders Finn’s questions, scratching his head. 

Rose’s eyes are wide when Rey returns her attention to her friend and makeshift doctor. “You… you’ve mated?”

“Yeah? So?”

“Congratulations!” Rose drops the stethoscope and assaults her with a hug. “You do know that’s the equivalent of marriage for wolves, right?” 

Oh. Well…

She’s not entirely put off by that. 

No. 

Not at all.

Because there’s only a big warm, fuzzy, pleasant sensation in her chest, like coming home after a hard day at work, at the thought of being stuck with that big brute over there. Rey feels like she’s just won the grand prize, or like she’s the cat who got to lick the cream, and when he looks back at her, all too smug and impossibly, horribly, vexingly  arrogant, she’s pretty confident he’s thinking something along the same lines.

“Will we get in trouble for… uhm, eating Snoke?” Rey asks after Amilyn’s explanation of what had happened after Rey and Ben had left the police station.

Apparently, the car accident didn’t get called in until late the next morning. And with both Rey and Ben missing—both werewolves at that, and not to mention one of them a police officer and the other affiliated with law enforcement—the entire force had been called in to help with the search. And it had taken them two days to-

“We’ve been here two days,” Ben deadpanned. “None of you bothered to check up on us here?”

“None of  _ you  _ bothered to call us to let us know you were alright,” Finn retorted, while Amilyn raised an amused brow. 

“We were preoccupied,” Ben said, grinning and scooching closer to Rey on the couch. 

Things are starting to burn again, despite the steady flow of cool air coming their way, which seems to originate straight from Amilyn. 

Is that what Amilyn is? Some kind of air witch?

She’ll ask Rose later. 

“Of course, there’s a fair bit of paperwork that we didn’t foresee, but no,” Amilyn reassures. “You’ve been cleared. Though I wouldn’t recommend you eating the killer on your next case.”

“Next case?” Ben and Rey quip simultaneously. 

Amilyn smiles secretly. “I think the details can wait until your heat wears off. Another day or two, right?”

Rey shrugs, she has no idea whatsoever. She does know that she’d love to kick her friends/coworkers/boss out, even if it’d cost her her job. 

Ben squeezes her knee, a calming yet arousing pressure at the same time, and winks. 

“Better make it three.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been quite a while since I finished something multi-chaptered, so let me just extend a massive thank you! Thank you, everyone who's been so supportive with your comments and kudos, and messages and all recommendations and reblogs on tumblr, twitter and discord. 
> 
> And you, Sage. Your reactions have continuously made my day. Thank you so much!
> 
>  
> 
> Any questions or just want to shout at me? Find me on tumblr and twitter.   
> [My tumblr](https://j-dryless.tumblr.com)  
> [My twitter](https://twitter.com/Drylesswrites)


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